French President Macron insults large families… and families fire back

Emmanuel Macron, president of France, is facing an onslaught of criticism for demeaning women with large families. Macron was speaking at a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation event about population control in Africa, where he said many African women would have smaller families if they could choose to do so. “One of the critical issues of African demography is that this is not chosen fertility,” he claimed, according to The Guardian. “I always say: ‘Present me the woman who decided, being perfectly educated, to have seven, eight, or nine children,'” he added, continuing:

Please present me with the young girl who decided to leave school at 10 in order to be married at 12. This is just because a lot of girls were not properly educated, sometimes because these countries decided the rights of these girls were not exactly the same rights as the young man. That is not acceptable.

While Macron is correct that forced child marriages are completely unacceptable, he seemed oblivious to the fact that it is insulting to group the idea of large families in with this exploitation of young girls. On social media, people around the world fired back.

Doc W

@ATWelshMD

·Follow

#PostcardsForMacron Nine college degrees so far among the humans. Our cat knows more than the President of France.

11:25 PM · Oct 18, 2018

307

Reply

Copy link

Read 8 replies

Katerina Janouch

@katjanouch

·Follow

Fantastic families at #postcardsforMacron - adding 4 of my 5 kids here, even if I'm just a journalist & have written aprox 60 books 💕

3:51 PM · Oct 19, 2018

177

Reply

Copy link

Read 10 replies

spirulina

@veebee7s

·Follow

My mama. Lawyer, MBA graduate, judge of the High Court of Uganda and mother of 6. A successful full time worker and full time mother. #postcardsforMacron

4:16 PM · Oct 19, 2018

105

Reply

Copy link

Read 2 replies

John Jansen

@johnjansen

·Follow

My beloved wife Jocelyn has a BA from Loyola University Chicago. Oh, and some children. #postcardsforMacron

5:29 PM · Oct 19, 2018

57

Reply

Copy link

Read 1 reply

Alisha Terry

@terrypartyof9

·Follow

I don’t have 7 kids because I’m ignorant. I have 7 kids because there is no greater joy or calling. BS in Cell Biology. #postcardsforMacron

6:55 PM · Oct 18, 2018

626

Reply

Copy link

Read 20 replies

Kathleen Berchelmann

@MomDocKathleen

·Follow

#postcardsforMacron Academic pediatrician, wife and happy mother of 6, soon to be 7 beautiful children. #motherhoodIsBeautiful

4:50 PM · Oct 19, 2018

15

Reply

Copy link

Read 1 reply

JJ

@Jj17406833

·Follow

@EmmanuelMacron My mother had a successful family practice and now works as an emergency physician at multiple hospitals. I am the youngest of her 8 children all of whom have university degrees themselves. Educated enough for you? #postcardsforMacron

10:34 PM · Oct 16, 2018

368

Reply

Copy link

Read 1 reply

Some have come forward to defend Macron, pointing out that he only was arguing in favor of giving African women greater access to “family planning” — but these people ignore that African women are not clamoring for access to abortion and birth control, and that efforts by westerners like Macron (and Bill and Melinda Gates) to pushing these things onto African women is viewed as another form of population control, eugenics, and colonialism.

It’s one thing to speak out for the need of educational access for girls in Africa, and to decry the practice of forced child marriage. It’s quite another to slam mothers of large families as uneducated victims who would never have chosen their children if they’d only had the choice.