Giroud, Françoise (1916–2003)

French editor, journalist, and government official. Name variations: Francoise Giroud. Born Françoise Gourdji on Sept 21, 1916, in Geneva, Switzerland; died Jan 19, 2003, in Neuilly; youngest of two daughters of Salih Gourdji (Turkish journalist) and Elda (Faraji) Gourdji (Frenchwoman); attended boarding school in Epinay, France, a suburb of Paris; attended the Lycée Molière and the Collège de Groslay; m. to M. Eliacheff (marriage dissolved); children: a son born out of wedlock, Alain-Pierre Denis (1941–1972); a daughter, Caroline.

Was a "script girl" on Marcel Pagnol's production of Fanny; over next 5 years, worked in continuity for dozens of films, including Jean Renoir's La grand illusion; became 1st female assistant director in French cinema history (1938); directed several films and continued to write adaptations and dialogue; with Nazi invasion, joined mass exodus from Paris (1940), settling in Lyon, where she worked for Paris-Soir, then the largest newspaper in France, and contributed features and short stories to 7 Days, a small weekly newspaper; arrested by Gestapo in Paris and imprisoned in Fresnes (1943), was unaccountably freed several months later, shortly before Allied invasion (1944); joined staff of Elle (1946), a women's magazine soon known for its daring subject matter, then took over as editor, staying until 1952; with Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, founded L'Express, a leftist journal of opinion that would become one of the most widely read and influential journals in the country (1953); when Servan-Schreiber left to fight in Algerian War (1956), took over editorship; except for a brief stint as feature editor of France-Soir (1960), remained editor-in-chief of L'Express until 1974; also published Nouveaux portraits (1954) and La Nouvelle vague: portraits de la jeuness (1958); appointed Secretary of State for the Condition of Women by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1974), called for the elimination of "feminine" jobs, the establishment of free day-care centers, and a revision of the Napoleonic Code, which regarded women as chattel; after serving an appointment as Secretary of Culture, returned to journalism (1979), becoming director of Revue du Temps Libre; co-authored (with philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy) Women and Men: A Philosophical Conversation (1993).

See also autobiography I Give You My Word (trans. by Richard Seaver, Houghton, 1974); and Women in World History.