The Best of Europe for Women - Choisir la cause des femmes

Gisèle Halimi was not alone in asking herself how women could benefit from the
construction of Europe. And the answer they came up with was based on a very
simple principle: they were going to take the most advanced laws in force in a
European country on a given subject and ensure that these laws applied to all
the women citizens of Europe. Today Choisir la cause des femmes is made up of
a group of activists, women who are legal experts, lawyers, professors,
students, researchers and unemployed. They have decided to focus their efforts
on laws, determined to drive progress and change them. They have understood
that the details of legislative texts have a huge impact on the way justice is
done. So they set off on a tour of Europe to meet their fellow activists and
members of feminist organisations. They carried out an investigation so they
could put together this second package of laws most favourable to women in the
European Union, convinced that change is built together, working collectively.
A collective book coordinated by Violaine Lucas, president of Choisir la cause
des femmes, with Maria Cornaz Bassoli, Manon Kerivel, Hanane Rebiha, Sakshi
Arya, Ana Cuesta, Noémie Girardot, Lisa Gordet, Manon Maillard, Adèle Monod
and Camille Bondon. Gisèle Halimi, feminist lawyer, former member of
parliament and French ambassador to UNESCO, co-founded Choisir la cause des
femmes with Simone de Beauvoir in 1971. Together with the Choisir activists,
they won the Bobigny and Aix cases which advanced women’s rights and helped to
bring about the legalisation of abortion, criminalisation of rape and
decriminalisation of homosexuality, and were the driving force in the adoption
of a law on gender equality. Gisèle Halimi dedicated herself to groundbreaking
feminist, social, anti-colonial and anti-imperialist campaigns.