Charles Margerison - Amazing People of France

Welcome to this inspirational eBook, which provides you with a unique and fascinating collection of life stories. It is part of a series developed by the Amazing People Club, written in the form of a BioView, which is a short name for a biographical interview. A BioView is a new concept that reveals amazing stories, as if the person has given an interview about their life. Each of the stories can normally be read in around five to ten minutes. They are based on the known facts of each individuals life, plus what they may have felt about their experiences. The unique format and flow enables each persons story to come alive, as if it is being personally told to you.

Each one of them reflects the interests, emotions and passions linked to the amazing persons achievements. They are stories that can provide inspiration and ideas for your own journey through life and we hope you will enjoy them. The career notes at the end of each story supply information on each persons life, reflecting their achievements and some of the recognition they have received. They provide the background to the stories, and an easy way of learning about people who made major contributions to our world. The stories show how ordinary people did extraordinary things to tackle problems and opportunities. Amazing people all had one thing in common.

Rather than accepting the situation before them, they developed and implemented plans of action to make improvements. We can all learn from their experiences and the ways they dealt with the challenges and, in this eBook, you can understand their troubles and triumphs. To learn more about the Amazing People Club books and audios, please visit www.amazingpeopleclub.com .

Bonjour and welcome I would like to tell you about my life and passions In particular, my efforts to gain equal rights for women I lived in France, where we had three great principles Libert, Egalit, Fraternit Those were fine words and ideals But, they only applied to men of a certain status They did not apply to women They did not apply to the poor and those in need They did not apply to children and the old Growing up in Paris, I witnessed the inequality It was the time of the First World War The Germans were beating on the door of our capital Libert, Egalit, Fraternit were being extinguished All around there was the sound of frightening gunfire Millions died Men and women came from many parts to defend our country Our principles were severely tested There was little food, and poverty stalked the streets When I was aged ten, an armistice was signed Peace returned, but poverty remained In addition, an epidemic killed people at random It was a virus that could not be contained Spanish Flu was the name people gave to it Millions of people across the world died from it Despite that, people tried to rebuild their lives Just when things were improving, another disaster hit us Stock markets crashed, in 1929, and businesses collapsed Mass unemployment and economic depression followed People in Paris and France suffered, like those elsewhere At the time, I was 21 years of age As the new generation, we needed a way forward out of the mess Meeting with other young people, we discussed options Was there an alternative to capitalism? We looked towards Russia and the great Communist experiment Was that the way forward? We looked west to America and witnessed the USA New Deal policies Which way should we go? In the Paris cafs, my friends talked We met mainly in the student area near the University of Paris It was on the left bank of the River Seine Young radicals, innovators and revolutionaries came to our meetings Caf de Flore on Boulevard St Germain was a favourite place Jean Paul Sartre, a philosopher, was in the group, and we shared ideas I was attracted to him and in 1929 we formed a relationship He asked me to marry him on four occasions But, what was the point, as I knew he would have other women? Anyway, neither of us believed in monogamy, so why marry? However, for the next 51 years, we lived together in one form or another It was a union that outlasted most of those that did marry Of course, it was tempestuous at times Our mutual understanding was that we could both have other lovers It was an open relationship I could love his friends with passion, whether they were men or women He could do the same with my friends It was a world of emotion-led action After all, that was sexual Libert, Egalit, Fraternit Why should a man have freedom and not a woman? We wrote about our experiences My attention focused on the role of women In my view, females were treated as second class citizens Putting pen to paper, words flowed like sparks in the night My writing was a moral crusade to gain equal rights for women To do so, it was necessary to shock people, particularly women Only if they woke up and took action would things change In my speeches, I told women to involve themselves in politics It was necessary to fight for Libert, Egalit, Fraternit Women should have the same rights and choices as men When I proclaimed the sexual rights of women, people listened Yes, that really got the attention of the politicians and judges It also aroused strong opposition amongst the priests They said I was inciting women to live in sin Not that many of them had any right to comment on such matters The sexual rights of women had long been ignored So many women had been abused, as they had little power There were many examples of women being exploited Young girls had been married off for economic and political gain Also, women had limited rights to learn and earn Women were restricted in the kind of work they could do Positions of power were invariably in the hands of men The politicians, police, priests and the judges were men Therefore, I lent my support to the womens liberation movement It was a time of great excitement and passion In 1949, one of my books caught peoples imagination Called The Second Sex, it spelt out the crusade for womens rights Some say that it sparked the start of the womens movement At that time, I was 41 and enjoying life My experiences, linked to my beliefs, drove me onward I wanted to establish equal opportunities for women in all matters Particularly their love lives and relationships My view was to inform, educate and incite positive rebellion Women, both young and old, needed to be more politically active Advances in medicine gave women more control over childbirth Developments in education helped them gain more education But so many doors to careers and power were still closed In 1968, that began to change in a big way Women joined with 11 million French workers who went on strike They almost caused the collapse of the De Gaulle Government Young left wing radical politicians controlled the streets Students aligned with workers in strikes, called