Yvette Roudy, French women's rights pioneer, dies at 97

Yvette Roudy, a veteran feminist campaigner and France's first women's rights minister, died Tuesday at the age of 97, her nephew Jean-Pierre Saldou said.

Saldou said Roudy died Tuesday morning in a medical care facility in southern France, where she had lived for three years.

Roudy led France's first fully fledged women's rights ministry from 1981 to 1986 under President Francois Mitterrand. During that period, the Socialist politician secured legislation for the reimbursement of abortion costs by the national health insurance system and gave her name to a 1983 law on professional equality between men and women.

As a minister and later as a feminist activist, she was one of the driving forces behind a 2000 law requiring political parties to field equal numbers of men and women candidates, aimed at increasing women’s representation in parliament.

Aurore Berge, France's current minister for gender equality and against discrimination, called Roudy a demanding, independent and tireless campaigner. The Socialist Party paid tribute to a minister who it said brought about historic advances.

Former president Francois Hollande praised Roudy as a “woman of conviction” and said she also secured official recognition of March 8 as International Women's Rights Day in France.