The wife of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been criticised for telling a leading magazine her generation did not need feminism.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy told French Vogue she was not a feminist but a true bourgeoise.
"There are pioneers who paved the way for us. I am not a feminist activist at all. On the contrary I am a true bourgeoise.
''I love family life and doing the same thing every day," confided the model, singer and mother-of-two.
The comments sparked a deluge of reaction on Twitter from feminists and a French senator.
"We need everyone to be feminist," summed up women's rights minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, when questioned on Europe 1 radio about the row.
"Feminism is about equal rights, not about one gender dominating the other."
