Miss Kolka

"The look on producer Sara Courageux's face when coming off air after reporting on the first face-to-face encounter between the woman who's vying to become France's first-ever female president – Ségolène Royal - and Germany's first-ever female Chancellor – Angela Merkel. “I object to the fact that we talk about what they're wearing, that we call them by their first name “Angela” and “Ségolène” said the hot-under-the-collar Courageux. You should ask the same questions of male politicians that you ask of women politicians. Point taken. However, fact is that women running countries are so scarce that it is an issue and should be mentioned. As our reporter stated, their gender is one of the few things they have in common as Royal's a Socialist and Merkel runs the conservative C.D.U. Also, even more so than Merkel or even Hilary Clinton, Royal's played on the gender issue, showing hinting that a win for her would usher in a clean break with the established order in France. So should we not talk about their gender?"

I feel I need to contextualise. We had a correspondent live in Berlin following the meeting of the two women, Royal and Merkel. And I had said something to Francois about his second question which I found quite leading. The question was something like "The Gender fact is likely to come up, is it not?"

My viewpoint is that just mentioning the fact that the two women are women - which is quite obvious - is like saying its abnormal they got that far, being women and all. Some will probably say now that it is rare that women have these positions so we should mention it. Does it then say that these women are somehow extra-ordinary because they got to where they are? How are we ever to progress with that attitude? There aren't many women in key positions in the political or economic sphere, I will give you that but that s mainly due to attitudes just like these, that they somehow must have done something extra or are really really tough to be where they are. Well no, Why shouldn't they be - women are after all half of the workforce in most western countries.

And so - the answer from the correspondent was just as I expected.. He started saying that yes of course they were both women but that was about the only thing that brought them together.Why should their gender bring them together when they don't even have the same political ideas? The correspondent continued: "Segolene" was much more glamorous then her perhaps-future counterpart and then he started talking about her clothes and stuff. Common. When do we EVER talk about what Tony Blair is wearing or George Bush? And how their hair looks like?

So we just fed the machine - playing into the  "wow-they-are-women-but-they-might-become-head-of-states- kindof amazement. Of course they can. However, as I have said before - it doesn't mean I am going to vote for them JUST because they are women - that would be exactly the same thing.

I know this is not what Francois ment - but how can we - as the women of France 24 - not feel annoyed when all we hear all day long is that there are too many women around the newsroom and sexist comments about how women don't know how to do this or that, or constant references to their sexual attributes. The over-all macho and misogynist athmosphere is constant and it is frustrating to work with men (without naming them) that feel threatened by female presence and always have to proove they have the upper hand by yelling - "I decide - you do just what I tell you - I'm the boss"