INTERVIEW. Sandrine Rousseau: “Society has a duty of reparation towards women”
The ecologist deputy, Sandrine Rousseau, is this Friday in the Pink City, at the invitation of the Parliament of the Students of Toulouse for a conference at the University of Capitole. To talk about current events and defend your vision of society.
In what way is the ecofeminism you claim to be the best reading grid to found our economic and social model?
Because we enter into the analysis of society through the prism of the violence it exercises. We appropriate the bodies of women, people of color or discriminated against, just as we appropriate nature in the same way. It is a violent appropriation without consent. We are forced to have to “be at the service of”… To get to grips with this violence, there is only one question to ask. Do we feel safe in the public space or not? If the answer is no, it means that we are among those discriminated against. Similarly, nature is no longer nature in itself, but a resource that we use, that we use. All this prevents us from thinking about balances. We think of growth, accumulation, enrichment, instead of thinking of respect and cooperation.
With the explosion of gender and intersectionality identity claims, is the notion of class, of social “race” even, as Annie Ernaux writes, still relevant?
Yes, the notion of class remains relevant. But it is no longer the only analysis grid. Things add up, as Annie Ernaux explains very well. The life of a poor black woman is obviously not the same as that of a rich white woman. It is this accumulation of discriminations that we must think about today in order to resolve it.
Is his Nobel Prize a sign that literature is stronger, goodthat politics to change the world?
In any case, this Nobel Prize is a hope if we consider the world in which we live. Annie Ernaux’s writing is a writing of liberation and we need stories of progress, emancipatory stories to change the world. From this point of view, it is better that it is his work that highlights rather than that of Michel Houellebecq, since we tend to oppose them.
“Society has a duty of repair with women, retirement could be that moment, but it is not”
How do you view the Quatennens affair and the position of La France insoumise?
In this case we are talking about domestic violence, I hesitate between the singular and the plural. But what is obvious is, as always, the solidarity that has been established with the violent man. What makes me sad is that there is always a “Yes, but”. Already with the presumption of innocence, but also with the condemnation. Either we no longer speak of suspicion, there is a legal truth and it is a condemnation. We wouldn’t use this “but” if it were a matter of another offence. Our fight is to ensure that there is no longer this “but”…
Are women still the population most mistreated by pension reform?
It is clear that it is always women who are the last wheels of the carriage of public policy. On pensions, the inequalities are enormous, or we act as if it were secondary, or even as if it were deserved. In fact, women pay all the domestic responsibilities they have assumed throughout their lives, within the home with the children, which induces fragmented, choppy professional careers. Society has a duty of reparation towards women, the moment of retirement could be a favorable moment for this reparation, but this is unfortunately not the case.
You are welcomed in Toulouse by students, what is the main message you want to convey in this kind of meeting?
First of all, I want to give them hope. Tell them that something can change and make them aware of the role they can have in this change. They must have self-confidence in order to rebuild society. Also tell them that there will be no ecological society in the current inequalities. Together we must remake society.