Lucienne Adeline Jeanne Ida Herman-Michielsens (13 March 1926 – 22 January 1995) was a
Belgian liberal politician and a member of the
Party for Freedom and Progress
The Party for Freedom and Progress ( nl, Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang; french: Parti de la Liberté et du Progrès; german: Partei für Freiheit und Fortschritt, PVV-PLP) was a liberal political party in Belgium which existed from 1961 unti ...
(PVV). She was married to Jacques Herman, a physician.
Biography
Herman-Michielsens was the only child of Gaston Michielsens and Adeline Mielecam.
Her father died when she was four years old.
Herman-Michielsens started her career as a teacher, like her mother. Later, she obtained a doctorate in law at the
University of Ghent and became a
civil servant
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
. She married Jacques Herman in 1951.
Political career
From 1965 to 1970, she was the president of the legal committee of the PVV Women (''PVV-Vrouwen''); in 1968, she became the director of the PVV Women of Ghent. She was president of the National Federation of Women PVV from 1970 until 1978, when that organization split due to language issues; she subsequently founded the Federation of Flemish PVV Women, becoming its first president. She remained a member of the Federation's Executive Board until her death.
From 1977 until 1991, she was a member of the Ghent
municipal council and senator for the PVV in the
Belgian Senate. For a short period in 1980, Herman-Michielsens was State Secretary for the
Flemish community
The Flemish Community ( nl, Vlaamse Gemeenschap ; french: Communauté flamande ; german: Flämische Gemeinschaft ) is one of the three institutional communities of Belgium, established by the Belgian constitution and having legal responsibilitie ...
.
On 3 April 1990, the
Belgian parliament
The Federal Parliament is the bicameral parliament of Belgium. It consists of the Chamber of Representatives (Dutch: , french: Chambre des Représentants, german: Abgeordnetenkammer) and the Senate (Dutch: , french: Sénat, german: Senat). It s ...
approved a bill, which Herman-Michielsens had submitted together with
Roger Lallemand, to legalize
abortion under certain conditions.
[The new law modified Articles 348, 350, 351, and 352 of the Belgian penal code (Title VII, Chapter I), and raised Article 353.]
In addition to supporting gender equality and abortion rights for women, Herman-Michielsens fought for the legal guarantees of
religious pluralism. After proposals on pluralism failed in June 1970—recognizing
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
, but not liberalism—a law was passed on 23 January 1981 providing limited support.
Herman-Michielsens resigned in 1991, at the peak of her political career, after
diabetes began to cause
blindness and
renal failure. She and her husband retired and moved to Knokke-Heist. Herman-Michielsens died in Ghent on 22 January 1995.
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herman-Michielsens, Lucienne
1926 births
1995 deaths
Belgian politicians
Ghent University alumni
Belgian women's rights activists