Françoise Giroud | |
|---|---|
 Giroud in 1998 | |
| Minister of Culture | |
| In office 24 August 1976 – 30 March 1977 | |
| President | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing |
| Prime Minister | Raymond Barre |
| Preceded by | Michel Guy |
| Succeeded by | Michel d'Ornano |
| Secretary of State for women's rights | |
| In office 1974–1976 | |
| President | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing |
| Prime Minister | Jacques Chirac |
| Succeeded by | Monique Pelletier |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Lea France Gourdji (1916-09-21)21 September 1916 |
| Died | 19 January 2003(2003-01-19) (aged 86) |
| Political party | Union for French Democracy |
| Children | 1 son and daughter |
| Profession | Journalist |
Françoise Giroud (bornLea France Gourdji; 21 September 1916 – 19 January 2003) was a French journalist, screenwriter, writer, and politician.
Giroud was born inLausanne, Switzerland, to immigrantSephardiTurkish Jewish parents; her father was Salih Gourdji Al Baghdadi, Director of the Agence Télégraphique Ottomane inGeneva.[1]She was educated at the Collège de Groslay and theLycée Molière in Paris.[2] She did not graduate from university.[3] She married and had two children, a son (who died before her) and a daughter.[1]
Giroud's work in cinema began with directorMarc Allégret as a script-girl on his 1932 adaptation ofMarcel Pagnol's playFanny. In 1936, she worked withJean Renoir on the set ofGrand Illusion. She later wrote screenplays, 30 books (both fiction and non-fiction), and wrote newspaper columns.[4] She was the editor ofElle magazine from 1946 (shortly after it was founded) until 1953, when she and her then-partnerJean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber founded the newsmagazineL'Express. She editedL'Express until 1971, then was its director until 1974, when she began her political career.
In 1974,PresidentValéry Giscard d'Estaing nominated Giroud to the position ofSecretary of State for women's rights, which she held from 16 July 1974 until 27 August 1976, when she was appointed to the position ofMinister of Culture. She remained in that position until March 1977, for a total service of 32 months, serving in the cabinets of prime ministersJacques Chirac andRaymond Barre. She was a member of the centristRadical Party.[5]
Giroud often said that her goal was to get France "out of its rut", contrasting France with the dynamism and optimism she saw in the United States. On her first visit toNew York City soon afterWorld War 2 ended, she had been struck by "the degree of optimism, the exhilaration" she had found there. That view stayed with her: "There is a strength in the United States that we in Europe constantly tend to underestimate."[6] Giroud gave the commencement address at theUniversity of Michigan on 1 May 1976.[7]
Giroud received theLégion d'honneur. She ledAction Against Hunger, a humanitarian aid organization, from 1984 to 1988.[1][8]
From 1989 to 1991, she was president of a commission to improve cinema-ticket sales. She was a literary critic for the weeklyLe Journal du Dimanche, and she contributed a weekly column toLe Nouvel Observateur from 1983 until her death.
Giroud died at theAmerican Hospital of Paris on 21 September 2003 while being treated for a head wound incurred in a fall.[3] A special issue ofL'Express covered Giroud's death. It stated:
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