Marguerite Victorine Zéphirine Anne De Riemaecker-Legot (9 March 1913 – 7 May 1977) was the first
Belgian woman to serve as a government minister, and the first to be appointed
Minister of State.
Daughter of Leonardus Legot, a lawyer, and Maria Jeurissen, Marguerite was born in
Oudenaarde and educated at the
Bernardine
Bernardine is a Latinate diminutive of the given name " Bernard". It can be applied to men, notably Saint Bernadine, but is now much more often a female name. Bernadine and Bernadene are variant spellings of the female name.
The nickname '' ...
school there, attending high school in neighbouring
Ghent. She studied law at
Ghent University, graduating in 1936. She soon abandoned a legal career in Brussels to teach elementary civil and constitutional law in school. It was at this time that she became associated with
Christian Socialist Senator
Maria Baers.
On 7 May 1938, Marguerite Legot married engineer Jules De Riemaecker, becoming Marguerite De Riemaecker-Legot. The couple had two sons.
After the
Second World War, De Riemaecker-Legot worked with
Henri Pauwels
Henri Pauwels (19 January 1890 – 18 September 1946) was a Belgian trade unionist and politician.
Born in Nivelles, Pauwels became a mechanic, and joined Christian Union of Belgian Metalworkers (CCMB), becoming a technical adviser in 1912. ...
, Minister with responsibility for victims of the war, later becoming a senior civil servant in that department. She was the only woman serving on the national committee of the Christian Democrats, and was active in the female branch of the Catholic Trade Union. In 1946 she was elected to the
Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives as one of the Brussels representatives. She was re-elected until 1971. From 1953 to 1958, and from 1962 to 1965, she served as secretary of the Chamber. From 1951 she served as a delegate to the
United Nations, and sat in the
European Parliament from 1958 to 1961.
Active in social policy, she was the first Minister for the Family and Housing when that post was created in 1965. From 1970 to 1976 she was active in Brussels, serving as an ''échevine'' from 1971 to 1976. On 18 October 1974 she was awarded the
Order of Leopold II and appointed Minister of State. She died in
Brussels in 1977.
References
*
Éliane Gubin
Éliane Gubin (born in 1942) is a Belgian historian, researcher and professor of political and social history, specializing in the history of women and feminism. In the late 1980s, she initiated the introduction of women's history at the Univers ...
, ''LEGOT, Marguerite...'', in Éliane Gubin, Catherine Jacques, Valérie Piette & Jean Puissant (eds), ''Dictionnaire des femmes belges: XIX
e et XX
e siècles.'' Bruxelles: Éditions Racine, 2006.
External links
Marguerite Legoti
ODIS - Online Database for Intermediary Structures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Legot, Marguerite
1913 births
1977 deaths
Government ministers of Belgium
20th-century Belgian women politicians
Ministers of state of Belgium
Ghent University alumni
Recipients of the Order of Leopold II
People from Oudenaarde