Sophie Binet, elected general secretary of the CGT on Friday, joins the very short list of women who have led unions.
Nicole Notat, the pioneer
Nicole Notat was the first woman to lead a large trade union organization in France, the CFDT, between 1992 and 2002. A teacher specializing in childhood, she was elected in 1982 to the CFDT Executive Committee. She was then the only woman in this governing body and the youngest (35 years old). Elected deputy general secretary of the CFDT six years later, she became president of the confederation in 1992.
Carole Couvert at the head of the CFE-CGC
At just 40 years old, Carole Couvert became in 2013 the first woman to lead the confederation of executives. “If I have one piece of advice for women, it’s ‘Go ahead!'” said this former GDF-Suez employee. But before embarking on this “beautiful experience”, you have to “thicken your armor” because as a woman one “hits,” she stressed, who was pushed out in 2016 by internal quarrels between people within her organization.
Bernadette Groison at FSU
An activist since 1989, this kindergarten teacher from the suburbs of Paris comes from SNUipp-FSU, the primary teachers’ union. In 2010, at the age of 48, she took over as general secretary of the Unitary Trade Union Federation, a position she held until 2019.
Annick Coupé, co-founder of Solidaires
Former regional secretary of the CFDT-PTT in Ile-de-France, relieved of her responsibilities for having supported a conflict going against the grain of her organization, Annick Coupé co-founded in 1988 with several hundred activists the federation SUD-PTT, of which she take the initiative. Ten years later, she participated in the creation of Solidaires, of which she was general delegate from 2001 to 2014. After her, the Solidaires union imposed a joint co-delegation. The mixed couples Cécile Gondard-Lalanne and Eric Beynel follow one another, then Murielle Guilbert and Simon Duteil (since 2020).
Source: BFM TV
