On International Women’s Day this year, March 8, , mayor of Paris since 2014, convened a conference at the magnificent 19th-century Hôtel de Ville under the title question: “A Woman = A Man? A Question of Power.” Dressed in a discreetly chic, navy dress with gold buttons, was in her element, addressing an audience of fellow feminists, social justice advocates, and socialist politicians. “You are all examples!” she said, welcoming them.
“You have been targeted, judged...
but you continue the struggle with a force, a humility.” She lamented the state of women’s rights all over the world, particularly in Afghanistan and Iran, and railed at insidious sexism closer to home. “Women in power are analyzed and ,” she said, using a verb for peeling shrimp that also means dissected, scrutinized.
“Politics is hard for everyone,” she continued, to applause, “but it is harder for women.” The mayor of Paris is responsible for a little over two million inhabitants, a budget of 10 billion euros, and a municipal workforce of more than 50,000. Her life veers between global issues and social ills; ceremonial duties and petty scandals; and sudden crises and the quotidian of bureaucratic officialdom.
At the beginning of the year, among other things: organized a referendum over the increase of parking fees for larger cars; dealt with a strike that closed the Eiffel Tower to tourists and parried the préfet de police’s resistance to her plans to pedestrianize the P.
