I know this article, French women have it all – except equality won’t surprise my close French mother friend one little bit, but for everyone else? It might have to be read to be believed. The French example illustrates how if you miss gender equality by an inch you might as well miss it by a mile.
Could there be anything more French than this workout?
Weeks after giving birth, French women are offered a state-paid, extended course of vaginal gymnastics, complete with personal trainer, electric stimulation devices and computer games that reward particularly nimble squeezing. The aim, said Agnes de Marsac, a physiotherapist who runs such sessions: “Making love again soon and making more babies.”
Perineal therapy is as ubiquitous in France as free nursery schools, generous family allowances, tax deductions for each child, discounts for large families on high-speed trains, and the expectation that after a paid, four-month maternity leave mothers are back at work – and back in shape.
Courtesy of the state, French women seem to have it all: multiple children, a job and, often, a figure to die for.
What they do not have is equality. France ranks 46th in the World Economic Forum’s 2010 gender equality report, trailing the United States and most of Europe, but also Kazakhstan and Jamaica.
Well, I’ll be damned. France, the land of Simone de Beauvoir, is behind the US?? Pay equity is as bad in Paris as in Manhattan? I’m actually very surprised. And disappointed.
Not very surprised either, I’m afraid. I blogged about this just yesterday. One thing that stands out is how some French people will hold on to the image of the ‘french woman’ at the expense of anything like equality. As a French woman myself (but who got out at 17 before it was much of an issue) I am bothered by this.