In France the Undersecretary of State (sous-secrétaire d'État) was a governmental role created during the Hundred Days and institutionalized in 1816.
Except during the Second French Empire, subsequent regimes up to and including the Fourth Republic maintained the principle of Undersecretaries of State.
[1] By a decree on March 24, 1815, he appointed two individuals, Édouard Bignon and Louis-Guillaume Otto, to serve under Armand de Caulaincourt.
[2] Under the Bourbon Restoration, Louis XVIII, by an ordinance on May 9, 1816, created the institution of Undersecretaries of State.
In 1936, three women became members of a French government for the first time as Undersecretaries of State: Cécile Brunschvicg, Irène Joliot-Curie, and Suzanne Lacore, respectively assigned to National Education, Research, and Child Protection.
[11] Several areas of ministerial action were initially entrusted to a Undersecretariat of State, such as technical education (1920) or youth and scientific research (1936).
In 1946, Andrée Viénot became the first woman to be appointed as a member of a government during the Fourth Republic, serving as Undersecretary of State for Youth and Sports.