10 Elections. A history of the European Parliament at the ballot box (1979-2024) June 2024 | Page 64

into the mainstream and organising peace , a dedication to actively promoting Geneva ’ s ideals and a pro-European commitment .
While she bid farewell to L ’ Europe Nouvelle in February 1934 , she became involved in a related endeavour . As a committed feminist , she founded the magazine La Femme nouvelle and organised suffragette demonstrations to call for women ’ s right to vote and equal civil and political rights . She symbolically ran in a number of elections , even though women did not have the right to vote . Once again , her commitment to peace , through women , was one of her key purposes .
During the war , given her Jewish origins on her mother ’ s side , she was obliged to be cautious and did not take part in the clandestine activities of the Resistance , instead limiting herself to resistance through the written word . It was perhaps for this reason that , after the Second World War , neither General de Gaulle , who gave women the right to vote , nor Jean Monnet offered her a fitting political role ; she then decided to travel the world and directed ethnographic films and documentaries while establishing herself as a renowned speaker and writer .
Return to Europe
In the 1970s , Louise Weiss returned to the European stage , firstly with her book Mémoires d ’ une Européenne , made up of six volumes , which were published in the 1960s by Payot and then completed by Albin Michel in the 1970s . In a very real sense , Europe dominated her life for almost an entire century .
In 1978 , she was awarded the Robert Schuman Prize . Then , in 1979 , after a lengthy process , the first elections of the European Parliament by universal suffrage were held . Louise Weiss took part
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