Friday’s French – exit bon père de famille

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You may remember another Friday’s French post where I talked about bon père de famille used in the context of a safe investment. Well, the expression is about to disappear!

A bill on equality between men and women is being discussed in the national assembly at the moment and an article introduced by the Greenies calls for the elimination of the term en bon père de famille which appears no less than fifteen times in current legislation.

Source: Wiki Commons
Source: Wiki Commons

Denouncing the expression as being désuète (old-fashioned), particularly with the changing face of the nuclear family, the environmental MPs have suggested raisonnable (reasonable) as a replacement.

The expression comes from the Latin bonus pater familias which existed in Roman law.

We can only applaud the initiative as being … more than reasonable!

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3 thoughts on “Friday’s French – exit bon père de famille”

  1. Hi Rosemary!
    It’s gone!
    I must say it really was old-fashioned and I didn’t liked the concept because it meant “never taking any risk”. and because it also meant one person was “the boss” in the family and that alone what plain ridiculous. The whole concept has disappeared, not only the reference to a male figure.
    As you know I never saw anything against women in it, and I think our MPs have more important things to worry about… But it’s done, I’m OK with it and if makes some women happy on top of that I don’t see anything to moan about.
    Bon week-end ! 🙂

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