Podcast: At 80, four women unroll their life in the microphone

They are called Murielle, Jacqueline, Françoise and Arlette. Born in Geneva in the early 1940s, they led abundant lives, punctuated by happiness and jacks. They owe their trajectories to the courageous choices they have made, although others have sometimes decided for them, especially in their young years. It is according to the courses of this female quartet linked by a long friendship that “women who read”, a podcast directed by journalist Laure Gabus.

Available in twelve episodes of about fifty minutes, This fascinating-spury story – whose title wink at “Women who read are dangerous“, Co -written in 2006 by Laure Adler and Stefan Bollmann – questions the roles played as well as the decisions taken by the protagonists at various ages of their life. In filigree also deploys the history of a city and almost a century of societal developments; Because those who engage in microphone have emerged in a time when, in Switzerland, the husband is still “chief of the marital union” and women do not have the right to vote (It will be granted to them in 1971).

Ceiling

The project begins in 2021, when Laure cork is mandated by the Canton of Geneva to document the Citizen Foruman experience of participatory democracy carried out with thirty people drawn: “I met Murielle there. This intelligent, bright and autonomous woman of 80 years fascinated me. She made me think of my paternal grandmother, whom I loved and that I would have liked to see the glass ceiling break. ”

The journalist then wonders what presided over the development of Murielle. She has the intuition that “she had friends to help her”. Confirmed premonition: for decades, the octogenarian can count on the support of Arlette, Jacqueline and Françoise. “Incredible personalities”, who met in adolescence or in their thirties.

The idea then germinates to bring them together to make them talk about their journeys. “At the dawn of my 40th birthday, I came out of a break,” says Laure. I was asking myself a thousand questions about the injunctions made to women, on my choices. I wanted to question what makes us advance through the different moments of existence and ask these women their recipe as grandmother. Not that of the apple cake but from the way to find yourself! ”

A film design is quickly abandoned in favor of an audio documentary. A “sacred adventure” that will last almost three years. With an eighteen month break, necessary for the narrator to find her voice in this powerful female choir: “I took a long time to look for the right distance, to design a thread that connects the four lives at the same time and the times they have gone through. ” One day, an ingenious tip is essential: addressing the audience in the form of a letter written to her grandma.

Nine hours of soundtrack

It is obviously impossible to summarize nine hours of soundtrack. We learn a lot about friendship. Having the intellectual affinities – the small bed band compulsively! – rather than domestic worries, the one that brings together the quartet is endowed with a great “depth of love”; She never denied herself, despite the swell occasionally caused by the confrontation of well -tempered characters.

The question of relation to men and feminism returns regularly. High at a time when, “if you did not have a great ambition yourself, we stayed on the kitchen tile”, according to Françoise, the companions declare a great interest in political issues. All four were professionally happy and closely followed the progress of social rights.

Throughout the testimonies, one has the impression of visiting Geneva through its social strata and its landscapes – the lake and the Rhône in particular, in which Arlette even bathes in very cold. Local policy is also mentioned there, and its connoisseurs will find here and there eminent local figures. But the main thing remains in these fantastic portraits of women breathing humor and intelligence: they tell us about our human relationships, demonstrate how aging can be serene and beautiful while reconciling us with our own flaws.

Did you find an error? Please report it to us.

0 comments