Germaine Poinso-Chapuis

Germaine Poinso - Chapuis ( born Chapuis, born March 6, 1901 in Marseille, † February 20, 1981 ibid ) was a French politician and lawyer. From 1945 to 1956 she was a member of the National Assembly. In 1947 she became the first female Minister of France.

Germaine Chapuis studied Roman Law and worked from 1921 as a lawyer in Marseille. So it was one of the first female lawyers in the city. She was an early Christian Democrat oriented and belonged to the Mouvement populaire républicain to. In 1945, she was appointed councilor of Marseille, which it remained until 1959. In the same year she reached the in the National Assembly. From 1947 to 1948 she held the position of Minister of Health. In May 1948, she introduced a bill, which provided for a promotion needy school children. Since the Socialist Education Minister Édouard Depreux rejected the law and it was adopted without his signature, that was the trigger for a government crisis. Poinso - Chapuis was the first female minister of France, in 1974 came the second woman with Simone Veil into the ministerial office. Later was Poinso - Chapuis also Vice President of the National Assembly. In 1956, she was not re-elected after four terms of office. Germaine Poinso - Chapuis died on 20 February 1981 in her hometown of Marseille.