The situation in France

In France, thanks to the 2000 Parity Law (including regulations on the equal representation of men and women on electoral lists), the share of woman on city and local councils has increased to well over 40 per cent. Although the law does not apply to mayoral elections, it has nonetheless had a positive impact here, too: currently, almost 20 per cent of mayors* are women, a share that is approximately twice that in Germany.  Under the current French government, fresh impetus has been given to the topic of gender equality (equal pay, protection against sexual violence, sexism in advertising, etc.) and it is being treated as a matter of national importance (‘une grande cause nationale’).

Historical development

Despite France’s long-standing republican and revolutionary tradition, the political participation of women was low. Active und passive suffrage for women wasn’t introduced until 1944 and the share of women in the National Assembly was under 10 per cent until well into the 1990s. Despite a very active women’s movement and numerous social reforms, the political system proved to be extremely sluggish vis-à-vis ending the underrepresentation of women.

The ‘Loi sur la parité’ was introduced after many years of intense and controversial debates among France’s political and social players. In 1982, the Constitutional Council had declared a reform law on the election to local councils to be illegal. The law had provided for a 25 per cent quota for women on local-election lists in municipalities with more than 3,500 residents*. The Constitutional Council referred to the principle of equality before the law, which it claimed would be contradicted by “division on the basis of categories of voters and eligible candidates”, as well as to the principle of universalism. According to the council, the law breached Article 3 of the French Constitution and Article 6 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

Advocates of parity in France’s parliaments recognised that only constitutional change would pave the way for legal regulations. 

Statutory framework

The constitution was in fact amended in 1999, Article 3 now stipulating that “the State promotes the equal participation of women and men in elective offices and positions”. 

The Law on the Promotion of Equal Access for Women and Men to Elected Mandates and Elective Positions came into force in 2001. At the time, France was the first country in Europe to introduce legislation based on the principle of equal participation of women and men. The law is essentially based on the principle of ‘égalité’ and the conviction that equal civic rights and duties include the equal participation of citizens* in political power. 

For list-based, proportional representation elections, France’s Parity Law provides for an equal representation of women and men on the electoral lists. This covers elections to local councils and the European Parliament, and since 2003 the regional councils. The rejection of lists that have failed to meet the legal requirements has proved to be an effective sanction.

The process is different at the national level where only direct mandates are awarded. Here, parties are asked to field the same number of female and male candidates in constituencies, or risk losing the reimbursement (by the state) of their campaign costs. For years, the major parties (both socialist and bourgeois parties) preferred to accept losses amounting to millions rather than field an equal number of women and men. The situation didn’t change until Emmanuel Macron’s new movement, which complied with the legal requirements. The share of women in the Assemblée Nationale is currently 38 per cent.

The law has been developed continuously since 2001 and an independent monitoring centre – the ‘observatoire sur la parité’ established by Chirac in 1995 – is tasked with actively supporting the implementation of the law. In addition, numerous training and qualification measures for women have been introduced at the municipal and regional level.

An important development was introduced in 2015: in the elections to France’s departmental councils, political parties were obliged to field a pair of candidates consisting of a woman and a man (the ‘binôme’ principle) in each canton. The number of cantons had previously been halved. The councils now have equal representation. 

Further development of representative democracy

Despite these successes, researchers* and activists* still see a great need to improve the political culture in France and to make party-political engagement more attractive for women. This is increasingly seen as a task for male party members, too. Ultimately, the issue is not only about equality but also the further development and reform capacity of the current political system, which is still characterised by centralism and the strong position of the president.