They also cook brilliantly and, usually, look fantastic. The first two statements can be proven statistically. They will be among the subjects of debate at an international demographic conference in Tours this week.The second pair of (mildly sexist) statements are entirely subjective. Of course you see plump women in provincial supermarkets wearing dresses that look as if they must have fallen behind the racks at the Monoprix winter sale. And of course there are some French mothers who feed their families on salt-soaked frozen hamburgers and ready-made chips.
Obesity, whatever Jacques Chirac may say, is a growing problem in France, especially in provincial France.But the population conference in Tours - organised, naturally, by a Frenchwoman - is on to something. Whatever the failings of modern France, they cannot be attributed to its women.Four in five French women aged from 24 to 49 have at least a part-time job. The French birth-rate - 1.9 babies for each woman - is among the highest in Europe, after Ireland and Iceland. French women live to be, on average, just under 84 years old; the highest female longevity in Europe, along with Spain.Much government social policy is fashioned to make all this possible - to enable women to be both productive at work and productive of babies There is a vast system of free nursery schools. Most schools have after-class garderies to corral little Jean-Pierre and Mathilde until mum - it's almost always mum - leaves work. There are free, or cheap, holiday camps for the summer months.Some sociologists - usually male - think this is all good, and just what French women want.
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Fran?s de Singly, an expert on the French family, says: "The French woman, when she becomes a mother, wants to hold on to her educational and professional capital, but also her seductive capital. She believes she can juggle all her potentialities."On the more subjective questions, I fall back on personal observation. French women - even young ones - dress more conservatively than British women They are more predictable, even boring. But they have a natural ability to wear clothes equalled by few nations - not even the Italians. A French woman in jeans and jumper, with long straight hair, can be criminally stunning.Second, French women may not all be brilliant cooks, but they are interested in food and cooking - something still handed down from mother to daughter. OK, this is not universally true, or the supermarket chains such as Hyper U and Carrefour would be out of business.