The French have always likened their republic to an imaginary woman, Marianne, but have never allowed a real one to govern it. Last week, in a bold attempt to revive France's sluggish economy and give new zest to his flagging Socialist regime, President Francois Mitterrand named longtime political associate Edith Cresson, 57, an aggressive booster of French industry, as the nation's first woman Prime Minister.
"We are confronted with the necessity of constructing a balanced Europe, where France is as strong as Germany," she said. Her initial decision: to create an economic superministry patterned after Japan's Ministry of International Trade and...
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