Women march across France to show the female faces of the 'yellow vest' movement

Women march across France to show the female faces of the 'yellow vest' movement
Copyright REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
By Pauline Bock
Share this articleComments
Share this articleClose Button

Hundreds of women of the 'yellow vests' movement marched in French cities on Sunday.

ADVERTISEMENT

Hundreds of 'yellow vest' women marched in French cities on Sunday, a day after 50,000 people across the country gathered for the anti-tax movement's eighth week of mobilisation.

In Paris, Toulouse, Rennes, Lyon or Saint-Etienne, hundreds of women wearing the symbolic neon yellow jacket, and sometimes phrygian hats reminiscent of the French revolution, organised their own march to show the female faces of the social movement that has shaken president Emmanuel Macron's government since November.

Unlike Saturday, when clashes erupted in Paris between police and protesters - and culminated in some of them breaking into a ministry's courtyard - the female 'yellow vests' marches went peacefully.

Their slogans, like in previous protests, focused around president Macron, whose resignation is demanded by the gilets jaunes. "Macron, you're doomed, women are in the streets", they chanted. 

Signs and banners in Paris' Bastille square, where the women gathered, also read: "I am your sister", "I am your colleague", "I am your mother".

About 300 female 'gilets jaunes' marched in Toulouse, holding a large banner reading "Precarious, discriminated against, revolted, women on the front line."

In Rennes, they were about a hundred, and as many in Lyon, in Saint-Etienne and in Caen. Women were sometimes accompanied by their children. 

"The government speaks of us as troublemakers, but today we are marching as the mothers, grandmothers, as daughters and sisters of all citizens, and we want to say that (...) our anger is legitimate", Chloé Tessier, 28, told the AFP. "It is during social crises like this one that women's rights are the most threatened."

Share this articleComments

You might also like

'Gilets jaunes': 80,000 police officers deployed for 'Act 9' on Saturday

Gilets jaunes: New Paris mural shows Lady Liberty leading protesters

Crowdfunding battle: Rival campaigns set up for French police and detained ex-boxer