Susan George (political scientist)

Born Susan Vance Akers on June 29, 1934, in Akron, Ohio, the only child of Edith and Walter Akers, Episcopalians who could trace their residency in the United States back to 1632. Her father was an insurance broker, and her mother was a homemaker and a member of the Junior League. Born during the Great Depression, she was raised in a privileged environment; she had a nursemaid and took dance classes, music lessons, and, at a YMCA, swimming lessons. After attending a public, co-educational primary school, she went on to enroll at all-girls private preparatory academy. She stated that single-sex schooling "made me not a feminist. It was normal that women do whatever anybody did. Women were the sports experts. Women were the brains. You weren't in competition with men. You weren't expected to shut up—on the contrary! Even in my era, I never felt that I was particularly put down as a woman ever." George's father encouraged all her interests, including those outside the realm of traditional femininity, such as science and baseball, and when he went to serve in World War II, George assisted in planting a victory garden. ==Academic career==

As a young student, George developed an interest in the French language and French culture. As a teenager she chose to attend Smith College, with the desire to study abroad in France. While studying abroad, she took courses at Sciences Po. She attained her bachelor's degree from Smith College in French and philosophy. George later attended the Sorbonne, attaining a license, a three-year degree, in philosophy. She earned her doctorate in political science from the University of Paris. ==Career==

Early anti-war activism George became a political activist in response to France's war in Algeria and U.S. involvement in Vietnam. George said that the Vietnam War "was this sort of gateway to understanding what America could be, which is to say something quite negative, which I had not understood at all when I lived there. I had accepted the usual propaganda." In 1971 she began working with the Front Solidarite Indochine, a group that organized antiwar lectures and protests in France. Shortly after, P.A.C.S. was dismantled by the French government. In 1984, she helped in organizing the World Food Assembly, a meeting held in Rome. She was awarded the title of honorary president in 2008. George was involved with the World Social Forum since its inception in 2000, and the spin-off European Social Forum. Though she was critical of the forums' initial structure, and believed that more action outside of forums was needed to bring about change, she applauded the steps they made towards changing "the political landscape". She canvassed for Kerry in Pennsylvania, but wrote for in a piece for OpenDemocracy "we all thought [Kerry] had a very good chance, even though everyone admitted it was hard to get really enthusiastic about him.... The man isn't the most charismatic ever to walk the earth. But at least he's not a proto-fascist or a go-it-aloner, and that's what we seem—apart from a last-minute miracle—to be stuck with now. With four years clear ahead of him and no re-election to worry about, I fear Bush and the ghastly neo- con/neo-liberals around him will now go on the rampage. They can continue with impunity their attacks on the Constitution and on hard-won freedoms...". and appearing in the 2008 documentary film, The End of Poverty?. George was the honorary president of ATTAC France. ==Personal life and death==

During her time abroad in France, she met French lawyer, Charles-Henry George, 12 years her senior, and later moved to France to marry him in 1956. The couple soon started a family. Susan George obtained her French citizenship in 1994. George's children and grandchildren further inspired her activism, saying in an interview "Either we achieve together a new level of human emancipation, and do so in a way that preserves the earth, or we shall leave behind us the worst future for our children that capitalism and nature can deal them. No one knows in which direction the balance will tip nor does anyone know which actions, which writings, which alliances may achieve the critical mass that leads us one way or another, backwards or forwards. I am acutely conscious of the precariousness of our moment and my four much-loved grandchildren give me added resolve to address it." ==Death==

George died on February 14, 2026, at the age of 91. Her husband, Charles-Henry George, had died at their country home in France in 2002. She was survived by her three children (Valerie, Michel, and Stephanie), and seven grandchildren. ==Honors==

• Honorary president ATTAC • Mentioned as honorary advisor of The Other Economic Summit ==Bibliography==