Sgolne Royal

French politician, a member of the Socialist Party who drew attention in 2007 when she was the first woman in France to be nominated by a major party in the bid for the country's presidency. She lost the election to Nicolas Sarkozy on May 6, 2007. One of eight children born to an authoritarian military officer, she was born in Senegal but the family moved back to France in the 1960s. The family atmosphere was frought with friction as the parents did not fare well together and Mr. Royal believed that a woman's place was in the home. In 1972 Segolene sued her father for his refusal to divorce her mother and she won the suit in 1981. Her father died a year later from cancer. While a young girl, Segolene fought for her right to get an education equal to that available to young men. She was successful in her battle when she was admitted to the Paris Institute of Political Studies. After graduating with a concentration in economics she studied at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), which the BBC calls "the finishing school" for the country's senior officials. She was elected a member of Parliament in 1988 and is President of the Poitou-Charentes region. She became an adviser to Francois Mitterand, served as minister for the environment from 1992-1993, junior minister for education (1997-2000) and junior minister for family and childhood (2000-2001.) She was chosen by the Socialist Party to be the party's candidate for president on November 16, 2006. She met Socialist Party leader François Hollande while studying at ENA. The couple were partners for almost 30 years and together they had four children; they split up in June 2007. In 2011, Royal made only third in the primaries of the Socialist Party for the presidential candidate. Hollande became the candidate for the 2012 election. Link to Wikipedia biography