Yvette Roudy, a prominent French feminist and politician who played a pivotal role in advancing women’s rights in France, died on August 18 at the age of 97 in a nursing home in Cabestany, near Perpignan on the Mediterranean coast. Her death was announced by President Emmanuel Macron, who praised her lifelong commitment to gender equality and social justice.

Roudy gained national recognition during her tenure as France’s first minister of women’s rights under President François Mitterrand in the early 1980s. She was instrumental in the passage of a 1982 law that mandated state reimbursement for abortions, ensuring that access to abortion was not limited to women with financial means. Abortion had been legal in France since 1975, but Roudy viewed the lack of public funding as an inequality rooted in economic disparity. Persistent in her efforts, she lobbied Mitterrand to fulfill his campaign promise amid opposition from the Roman Catholic Church.

Beyond abortion rights, Roudy pursued other legislative initiatives aimed at promoting gender equality. In 1983, a law she championed sought to establish professional parity in hiring and salaries between men and women. However, this law faced limited enforcement and little impact, a shortcoming Roudy herself acknowledged. She also worked to expand access to contraception, employing a widely broadcast television advertisement directed by filmmaker Agnès Varda. This initiative, too, encountered resistance from religious groups but marked an important step in public health and women’s autonomy.

Born Yvette Saldou on April 10, 1929, in Pessac, near Bordeaux, she was raised in a working-class family shaped by her father’s experience as a disabled World War I veteran. After her mother’s death when Roudy was 12, she left school under her father’s pressure to work but later earned her baccalauréat through night studies. In 1951, she married Pierre Roudy, a teacher and future head of a national theater school, with whom she spent several years in Scotland.

Roudy’s political awakening was influenced by translating Betty Friedan’s landmark feminist work, “The Feminine Mystique,” into French in 1964, an effort encouraged by feminist Colette Audry. Her engagement with the Socialist Party and connection to Mitterrand led to her appointment as minister in 1981. She later served multiple terms as a deputy in the French Parliament representing Calvados and as mayor of Lisieux.

Throughout her career, Roudy remained a steadfast advocate for women’s rights and social equity, often emphasizing the entrenched difficulties of confronting male-dominated political structures. In later years, she continued to comment on feminist progress and supported movements challenging patriarchal norms, such as #MeToo.

Roudy’s husband passed away in 2012. She is survived by no immediate family. Her career left a lasting legacy in France’s struggle for gender equality, marked by both significant legislative advances and the challenges of societal resistance.