One Woman, One Vote

"A practical joke," fumed Dramatist Marcel Pagnol, 75. "It is not serious," snapped Novelist Jules Remains, 85. "Deplace, indecent and outrageous," sputtered Novelist Maurice Druon, 52. What shocked the "immortals" was the fact that a Frenchwoman had been accepted as a candidate for election to the all-male Academic Francaise for the first time since Cardinal Richelieu founded the pantheon of intellectuals 335 years ago.

The audacious lady was Francoise Parturier, 51, novelist, essayist, fervent feminist and front-page columnist for Le Figaro. When she applied last October, few of the 35 members took her seriously (the Academy has 40 places, but five members have died since last March). Still Maurice Genevoix, the Academy's secretary, declared: "Nothing forbids a woman to become a member. Only once before in the Academy's history, in 1893, did a woman try to be a candidate. And we violated our statutes by refusing to let her."

Mme. Parturier applied after spending some time in the U.S., where she studied the Women's Liberation movement. "What I saw and heard impressed me. I decided it was high time to strike a blow for women in France [by] attacking a citadel of male chauvinism. I wanted to put the immortals and all Frenchmen face to face with their contradictions."

Ridiculed by the press, Francoise piqued the Academy by courting publicity; last month alone she gave 200 interviews. She further distressed the venerable immortals (average age: 76) by telephoning them to ask for their votes, instead of writing letters first to request audiences. Though half of the members agreed to see her, Francoise noted wryly, "I was received with the exquisite politeness one reserves for one's inferiors. Privately, my adversaries would say to me: 'You'd be right for the Academy if you were Colette or Joan of Arc.' "

Francoise replied to the public and private sniping in kind. When it was suggested that she might feel or look silly in the academician's green and black costume and cocked hat, she countered: "The frivolity of men never ceases to astonish me. All they want to talk about is clothes."

On the eve of last week's election, Francoise predicted that she would get no votes in her competition with three other candidates. She was wrong. Essayist-Art Critic Roger Caillois, 57, won the secret vote on the second ballot with 16 votes, but Parturier salvaged a minor moral victory. She received one vote.

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