Suzanne Miguez
Beginning in 1926, Jean Monnet was fortunate to have the unwavering dedication and loyalty of an outstanding secretary, Suzanne Miguez. Unfortunately, her contributions are often mentioned only in passing and rarely examined in depth. Born in 1901, Miguez was a divorced mother of one daughter and enjoyed a remarkable career as a private secretary, working in locations such as Dantiz, Luxembourg, and Paris. After World War II, she joined the High Planning Commission, which was established on 6 January 1946, alongside another secretary, Suzanne Desjeunes. Following the signing of the ECSC Treaty, Miguez relocated to Luxembourg to become part of the ECSC High Authority. A staff list from June 1953 reveals that she held the distinction of being the highest-paid woman in the entire administration. After the resignation of Jean Monnet, Suzanne Miguez kept her position at the High Authority. Following his passing in 1979, Miguez collected essential documents from the Plan Commissariat and Houjarray to deposit at the Fondation Jean Monnet pour l'Europe in Lausanne. These included personal documents and many photographs.
By the mid-twentieth century, previous technical and social transformations enabled women to enter the workforce and become essential to its effective operation. The High Authority reflected this change, with 68 women occupying secretarial roles among 311 employees in January 1953. By 1958 women represented a quarter of its workforce, with 295 women employed as secretaries. They spoke at least two community languages, and often three or four and were essential to the work at hand. Nevertheless, the European administration did not foresee career development for secretarial roles and the human resources regulations did not define traditional female jobs, such as secretary, shorthand typist, or typist in the same way as they defined management or assistant functions. This lack of recognition and prospects created deep unease among women secretaries into the 1970s.
Helene Isnard
From secretary to director, Hélène Isnard's career in Community administration is truly remarkable. Her journey, which may seem unthinkable today, is documented in the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence and the European Commission in Brussels. Spanning from 1952 to 1992, her career, which began in Jean Monnet's Cabinet as secretary, exemplifies longevity and dedication. In 1958, she became an archivist and was elected as a staff representative, apparently serving until 1961. She reappeared in 1974 in the 'Pour mieux se connaître' (Get to Know Each Other Better) column of the Courrier du Personnel, where she stepped into the role of lawyer and later director of the Division Statut. Two decades later, in 1992, she participated in a meeting addressing the specific challenges of recruiting women.
From 1953, the High Authority set up a representative body, the Comité du Personnel, and trade unions were established within the administration. Documents relating to staff elections show an initially small but quickly growing and even exponential involvement of women. A total of 48 women stood as candidates in the elections between 1953 and 1969, with varying results. Some would truly have a career as representatives, such as Jacqueline Leclercq and Simone Janton, who both stood as candidates five times between 1963 and 1969. While it is hard to quantify, the participation of women in the Staff Committee and unions doubtlessly helped them take charge of issues related to secretarial careers.
Renée Van Hoof
A pioneer interpreter in the European institutions and the first woman Director General of the European Commission, Renée Van Hoof is an important figure in the history of European integration. She was born to a German-American mother and a German father. After studying philosophy and literature, she specialised in Germanic philology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, which required command of three Germanic languages. During a transatlantic cruise to New York on the ship Liberté in 1952, offered by her parents, she met Paul-Henri Spaak and offered to work for him as an interpreter and administrative assistant. She joined the Economic Coal and Steel Community as an interpreter in the same year, after an 8-week interpreting course at Geneva University. In 1956, she attempted to resign, citing her impending marriage and desire to start a family in Brussels. Refusing her resignation, René Mayer decided to transfer her to Brussels, where she worked for the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers. During the negotiations for the Common Market and Euratom, she was in charge of organising the interpretation team at Val Duchesse. After the signing of the Treaties of Rome in 1957, she was asked to set up the Joint Interpreting Service. In 1958 she became chief interpreter in the linguistic service of the Directorate-General for Administration, and was subsequently appointed Head of the Interpretation Division in 1963 and Director General in 1982. Renée Van Hoof later taught at various universities, including the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard and the Sorbonne. In the project to document the history of the European Commission, Van Hoof was interviewed in 2017. The interview is available in the database of the HAEU.
In the 1950s, careers in interpreting and translation often grew out of personal transnational journeys, and the experience of this High Authority civil servant is no exception. While there were many women within the Service linguistique, none reached the level of seniority arrived at by Renée van Hoof. While men held most of the highest positions in the translation service hierarchy, women were still able to wield a certain degree of power. Several German female interpreters and translators enjoyed very rich life experiences and careers in the service. Ursula Wenmaekers, for example, was distinguished as Jean Monnet's favourite interpreter. There were also lesser-known women, such as Ms. Jensen, who became a translator after starting as a secretary. Their dedication to Europe is evident in the longevity of their careers. Some joined the High Authority mid-career, while many remained with European administration until retirement.