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You are here: Home Family & Kids Kids Maman-minister: France debates politics and motherhood

15/01/2009Maman-minister: France debates politics and motherhood

The super-short maternity leave of Justice Minister Rachida Dati is stirring debate in France over how to juggle a high-powered political career with the demands of motherhood.

PARIS - The 43-year-old minister has been a hot topic of discussion since she returned to work last week only five days after the caesarian birth of her daughter Zohra.

After stepping out of a Paris maternity clinic, Dati arrived smiling and spruced up for a cabinet meeting at the Elysee presidential palace.

While women's groups say Dati set a bad example, many of her fellow female politicians admit they too would have opted for a quick return to work: politics, they say, requires 100-percent commitment.

"Being back on the job only five days after a caesarian is too soon, there's no doubt about that," commented former presidential candidate Segolene Royal, who in 1992 became France's first pregnant minister.

"But this exceptional duty requires exceptional behaviour," she said.

A prominent Socialist, Royal took a swipe at President Nicolas Sarkozy for choosing to announce a major justice reform on the day Dati left the maternity clinic and said he was trying to steal her thunder.

"I understand that Rachida Dati felt that she had to be at the president's side" when he announced justice reforms, said Royal. She also revealed that she sought to hide her pregnancy when she was environment minister.

France prides itself for progressive social policies that give women 16 weeks of paid maternity leave, but these laws do not apply to ministers and elected officials.


Higher education minister Valerie Pecresse, a mother of three, won broad approval from the left and right when she suggested extending those legal provisions to women in politics.

"In the current system, Rachida Dati did not have choice and I think I would have done the same thing," said Pecresse, who called for new legislation to give mayors, deputies and ministers the right to the same maternity leave.

1 reaction to this article

veryangrymum posted: 21-01-2009 | 11:22 AM

If career and power are higher priority than the life of a baby, then give her for adoption to someone who would love and cherish her and make her the priority she deserves to be. Rachida Dati is the most vulgar example of disgrace to the name of "Mother". She has thrown her daughter aside like a dirty diaper in favour of her paycheque and social life.

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