Éliane Vogel-Polsky (5 July 1926 – 13 November 2015) was a Belgian lawyer and feminist.

Biography

Éliane Vogel-Polsky was born in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...

on 5 July 1926, one of two daughters. Her parents were Russian Jews who had immigrated to Belgium after the end of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. She attended the Lycée Émile Jacqmain but her education was interrupted by the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. The anti-Jewish regulations introduced by the German forces of occupation obliged Vogel-Polsky to finish school under a false name with the Benedictine sisters in Liège. Vogel-Polsky enrolled at

Saint-Louis University, Brussels Saint-Louis University, Brussels or UCLouvain Saint-Louis Brussels (officially, in French Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles) is a public university in Brussels, belonging to the French Community of Belgium and specialized in social and huma ...

for a preparatory law degree in 1944. On 7 July 1950 she graduated with a doctorate in law at the Université libre de Bruxelles; she was called to the bar the same year. During her doctorate she first met Marie-Thérèse Cuvelliez and Odette De Wynter. In 1952 with Cuvelliez she became the first woman to win the Janson Prize. In 1958 Vogel-Polsky obtained three degrees: international social law, comparative social law and community social law. Vogel-Polsky was a strong feminist and in 1966 she supported the strike at FN Herstal and she began feminist studies in 1968. She taught four courses on Belgian labour, social security, international social law and comparative social law and in European social law in 1975. In 1969 she joined the Faculty of Law at the ULB and became a professor in 1991. Though she was best known for her defense of women's rights Vogel-Polsky was a labour law expert and article 119 of the Treaty of Rome is nicknamed ''Eliane's article''. She was also the lawyer in the Defrenne v Sabena (No 2) case about age discrimination. In 1992 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the

University of Lleida The University of Lleida (officially in Catalan: ''Universitat de Lleida'') is a university based in Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. It was the first university founded in Catalonia and in the ancient Crown of Aragon. It was founded in 1300, using the ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

for her teaching career. Vogel-Polsky married lawyer André Albert Vogel and they had 3 children: Jean, Laurent and Alain. They had a company but Vogel-Polsky found it frustrating that she was often sidelined as a woman. Aged 90, she died in Brussels on 13 December 2015. In 2020, Vogel-Polsky was chosen to be the Patron de Promotion of the 2021-2022 class at the

College of Europe The College of Europe (french: Collège d'Europe) is a post-graduate institute of European studies with its main campus in Bruges, Belgium and a second campus in Warsaw, Poland. The College of Europe in Bruges was founded in 1949 by leading ...

by the rector

Federica Mogherini Federica Mogherini (; born 16 June 1973) is an Italian politician who served as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. She previously served as I ...

, the former High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

References and sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vogel-Polsky, Eliane 1926 births 2015 deaths Jurists from Ghent Belgian feminists Belgian Jews Belgian women lawyers