By Henna Leppämäki, Ksenia Glebova,

Judith Fischer (judith.fischer@eudoramail.com)

France or Republique Française is a democratic republic featuring unitary state, parliamentary executive-legislative and multiparty systems. In its current form the country’s political system has been established in 1958 as the Fifth French Republic under the presidency of General Charles de Gaulle.

The political system formed under the Constitution of 1958 has been described as semi-presidential with a bicephalous or ‘dual executive’ which reflects the powerful position of the president in France and the fact that executive powers are shared between President and Prime Minister. (Lovenduski & Norris, 1993)

The power is divided into executive, legislative and judicial branch. The executive branch is represented by the President, Prime Minister and Council of Ministers appointed by the President on the suggestion of the Prime Minister. Since 1962 referendum, the French president has been elected by a direct procedure for a seven-year term. The president has the power to appoint the Prime Minister nominated by the National Assembly majority, and also the ability to dismiss him or her although not formally in the Constitution. All French presidents have simultaneously performed the functions of both the head of state and chief of the executive. The Prime Minister co-ordinates the Government, which is composed of ministers responsible for particular policy areas.

The government in France is always the expression of the majority of the National Assembly, an absolute majority required from 1958. The Fifth Republic has experienced various governments during its existence including coalition and dominant-party governments and several of cohabitation.

The relationship between the President and the Government has been described as the ‘republican monarchy’ reflecting the extensive powers of the President, which make his position resemble that of a ‘monarch’ of the republic. Indeed, to name but a few, the President is all-powerful in the ordering of peace and war, of weapons and diplomacy, he or she can dissolve the National Assembly and appoint three members of Constitutional Council. Combined with complete political irresponsibility, the President can be said to enjoy the privileges of the head of state in both a presidential and a parliamentary systems.(Colomer, 1996)

The legislative branch is represented by the Parliament. The French Parliament or Parlement is bicameral and consists of the upper chamber called the Senate or Senat and the lower chamber called the National Assembly or Assamblee Nationale elected by popular vote under a single-member majoritarian system for five-year terms. The Parliament’s official functions include representation of the electorate, decision-making and control of the government.

The judicial branch is represented by the Supreme Court of Appeals or Cour de Cassation, Constitutional Council or Conseil Constitutionnel and the Council of State or Conseil d’Etat. The past decades witnessed slow evolution of the role of the Constitutional Council, as a result of which its powers and importance have increased and scope of action widened significantly.

The electoral system of the French Republic stands out amongst its Western European counterparts. To be more precise, there were two contrasting periods during the Fifth Republic, before and after the year of 1979. In the first period, electoral systems at all levels of the political system were standardised into the two-round majority system. In 1979 the system was reformed with the introduction of the first direct elections to the European Parliament which paved the way for the introduction of proportional representation at the national level. However, in 1986 PR for parliamentary elections was replaced with single-member, two-round majority system. Taking into consideration all levels of political system, France of today has a variety of electoral systems including exceptional in European terms double-ballot majority system for presidential and parliamentary elections.(Colomer, 1996)

As for the French party system, it has undergone a fundamental transformation in 1958, when the number of significant parties has been reduced while organisational change in the already existing ones has been profound. Five major political parties worth mentioning emerged as a result: on the left, Partie Communiste Française (PCF), the Communist party; Partie Socialiste (PS), the Socialist Party; centre-right, Union pour la Démocratie Française (UDF), Union for the French Democracy; and further right, Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) or Rally for the Republic and last but not the least - the extreme right party, Front National (FN) or the National Front. The system is unusual among Western democracies as it is characterised by the fragility, instability and weakness of parties and interest groups.

Below is the table summarising major features of the French political system:

Source: Rhodes, Heywood, Wright (eds.): ‘Developments in West European Politics’, Macmillan, 1997.

To conclude, the high concentration of power in the French Republic should be noted which, assisted by powerful and prestigious bureaucratic elite, places the executive branch of the Fifth Republic the heart of the political system. In turn, that brings a certain degree of ‘democratic deficit’ into the system.

This essay is an attempt to present and analyse the position of women in French politics. The aim of essay is to interpret and explain political status of women in France on the basis of the findings and come up with a conclusion statement on the issue. The time span of the essay will mostly concentrate on the years of existence of the Fifth Republic, in other words, since 1958 to the present. The scope of the essay will be further limited by concentrating on the national level of political system. However, references both beyond the national level of politics and the times prior to the Fifth Republic will be used where relevant.

Having introduced the general political system of the French Republic, the essay will proceed in the following manner: we will firstly give a general presentation of the political status of women in France, followed by an overview of French political culture. Next we will consider women’s political participation and representation followed by an insight into action for change and conclude the essay by attempting to analyse and interpret women’s political status on the basis of what we have found. Our main sources were literature on women’s studies from the Kristiina institute, articles kindly provided by Ms Eeva Raevaara and statistics from the World Wide Web. We have encountered problems with finding statistics on French women’s participation in politics, most of which dates from the 1990’s. This well illustrates the state of women’s studies and research in France which is generally lagging behind other EU countries and the research is politicised, underfunded and more sociology and history oriented rather than political science.

Generally speaking, France is the birthplace of feminism. Well-known feminist writer and existential philosopher Simone de Beauvoir was criticising French patriarchy and it’s control over women in her famous treatise ‘The Second Sex’ (1949). Her writings made a long-term difference and spread the feminist message throughout the world. However, the principle of gender equality is still not a well entrenched in political workings of the French society.

The historical development since the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 hasn’t been very favourable to women. Any international comparison demonstrates that France is lagging behind many Western European countries. Aside from Greece, France is considered to be the least advanced European Union country in terms of opening the access to the political scene to its female citizens. Although France was the first nation to grant universal suffrage to all male, it didn’t extend the right to vote to its female citizens until 1944.(Gaspard&Mazur,1997)

It is very important to note the gap between theory and practice in French political dynamics concerning women’s participation. The legislature supposedly guarantees equal possibilities to both sexes, but the actual political atmosphere is still very patriarchal and male-dominated. In France, the gap between women’s and men’s wages is one of the smallest in the world along with a very high rate of female labour-force participation. So why is the level of female participation in politics so much lower in France than in other EU-countries? (Jenson&Sineau)

One can start looking for answers in electoral system or policies of the parties, but these are the issues to be discussed later in this essay. Of course they have a great impact, but we should also take into account the general social reality of French society. France is a traditionally Catholic country where religion has always had a notable influence on social life. Church has strongly promoted traditional family values – rather than gender equality. Issues concerning reproduction, especially right to abortion, have had great impact on general discourse on gender-equality in French society. Catholic church represents conservative values and the focus is usually on woman’s role as a mother and wife.(Jackson, 1993)

Since general feminist movement in 1970’s, the rates of participation have increased in French political scene. The appointment of Edith Cresson as a prime minister in 1991 was a clear evidence of women’s gradual penetration into higher positions in political decision-making. In 1992 the most popular public persona in France was another woman Simone Veil. She was the first President of the European Parliament, and since 1984, she has been the Deputy President. She also has served as President of the Judicial Commission for the EP and has participated in the French government for many years. Her political, legislative and social power is real and honoured. She is the only woman to have appeared in surveys as a potential Prime Minister in France. These examples demonstrate that, although women are largely under-represented in the French political elite, the French have generally accepted women as national political leaders.

Perhaps the fact that in the 14^th century France women were prohibited from inheriting the Crown under the Salic law or loi salique marked the beginning of the French tradition of transferring popular sovereignty only on men and exclusion of women from political life.

The roots of modern French political culture lie in the times of the Third Republic (1870-1940). One of the features of the political culture of the Third Republic was sexism embodied in the Enlightenment view that of woman as ‘other’. Only man was seen as a complete human being and thus highly promoted ‘universal’ suffrage was naturally perceived universal only for men. Ideology of femininity based on biological differences between men and women claimed to present a scientific proof of women’s inferiority. The perception of sexual equality as unnatural phenomena was further solidified by the mentor of the Revolution, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed that public sphere had to be exclusively masculine, especially under a Republic. Moreover, women’s potential participation in politics was commonly viewed as an intrusion, which could only result in a disaster, as women were seen to be on the side of superstition and reaction. (Eatwell, 1997)

The latter proved to be a crucial argument used by the Senate in 1922 to dismiss a suffrage bill which had been passed by the Chamber of Deputies in 1919. As a result, French women were granted the right to vote only in 1944, after the Nazi occupation and fall of the Third Republic, which is relatively late compared to the majority of West European countries. However, one should note the failed attempt to introduce universal suffrage in the 1920’s while trying to put the French experience into context. Under the circumstances it is hardly surprising that in contemporary France women ten to be under-represented in the political elite. (Eatwell, 1997)

a.Women’s movement in France

Resistance and liberation led to political activity among women’s groups after the Second World War. Women were active in different ideological organisations associated with the church and trade unions. These organisations presented women’s need in traditional ways. By the 1970s the inferior situation of women was openly contested and feminist movements appeared. The movement for women’s liberation started in August 1970 in Paris when a few women placed a wheat on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in honour of his wife. The movement expanded quickly, feminist groups multiplied. There were three major wings in the women’s movement: revolutionary feminism (labelled as MLF Mouvement de Libération des Femmes, known as French Feminism), syndicalist feminism and egalitarian feminism. The movement was related to the improving position of the left in the 1970s and especially influenced by the far left (gauchisme). The movement was subject to pressure of parties and syndicates. Major parts of the movement rejected electoral politics.

The economic crisis, internal tensions and the severe weakening of the left in the late 1970s and 1980s undermined the movement. There was little agreement within the movements whether women’s need should be represented in a language of equality or difference. The dilemma of whether to pursue a politic of equality or one of difference still exists today. The influence of the movement was limited, one important accomplishment was the reform of the abortion law (campaigns for legal abortion, final law passed in 1979). Because the women’s movement never focused on the feminization of elected institutions, the parties often ignored the issue of promoting women. Today, women´s groups continue to take up women issues like for example sexual harassment.

b. Voting behaviour

c. Parties

Since 1958 the number of significant parties has been reduced and many parties have undergone organisational change. There is a big gap between the official discourse of the parties and the internal treatment of women: Parties take up gender issues to gain women´s vote but are sill reluctant to promote women inside the party.

In the French party system five parties should be mentioned:

-Parti Communiste Francais (PCF): the PCF is a traditional communist party. Until the 1970s it was the largest party of the left, but with the emergence of the PS it has lost much of its influence and only remains powerful in local elections.

-Parti Socialiste (PS): the PS emerged out of the formerly the French Section of the Workers International. It was reorganised in its present form in 1971 and has become the dominant force of the left.

-Union pour la Democratie Francaise (UDF): the UDF is a weakly organised centre-right party.

-Rassemblement pour la Republique (RPR): rightist party founded in 1976.

-Front National (FN): established in 1972, this extreme-right, racist and anti-immigration party has become a major local electoral force.

With the exception of the PCF French parties always had lower level of membership than parties in other countries. They have not published reliable membership figures. In 1978 the RPR had the largest proportion of women (41% according to the party), almost the double of the PS (22%). Eight years later, the proportion of women in the parties were about the same. In 1989 the PS had 28% of women, while the RPR in 1986 had 37%.

We will compare the party strategies and the treatment of gender issues between the two most electorally important parties: PS and RPR. There are significant differences between the parties, in terms of their internal treatment as well as in their platforms. In contrary to the RPR the PS has defined a positive action strategy. Although the Communists have presented themselves as the party with the most female candidates and deputies, the Socialist Party was the only party to use a quota system to promote women. In 1974 a quota of 10 per cent was established, rising to 30 per cent in 1991. However, the quota system was only applicable for proportional representation (legislative elections are excluded) and with the exception of the European elections the quota requirements has not been respected throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Women tended to be placed in non-electable positions. In 1977, PS feminists succeeded in forming a national secretariat. The secretariat integrates women’s demands into the party discussion. Compared with other parties, the PS has paid the most attention to women’s right issues (day care, equal employment, state-funded abortion…), this was a result of the party interest to gain women’s vote and due to the pressure of PS feminists. But the economic crisis, the declining public interest in women’s right and the decline of the influence of PS feminists in the 1980s led to a lower place of women’s right issues on the party agenda. Instead of adopting a positive action strategy to advance women as candidates, the RPR has always rejected feminist claims, emphasising the role of women as mothers. Women are generally placed in sectors that are traditionally considered as feminine (family, elderly, daily life). Since 1981 a group called Femme Avenir support women candidates who have received the party nomination in the RPR.

Despite of these differences between the PS and the RPR, the women find themselves in a similar situation: In both parties women have problems to advance, there is a similar number of women as members, candidates and elected officials, a lack of women in high decision-making positions, and in both parties women are not satisfied with their situation. Women’s advancement often depends on male leaders. Jaques Chirac claimed about Michele Barzach who was removed from the RPR Party leadership in 1990: "I made her...when I took her in hand, she was completely unknown" (Appleton, Mazur: p.111).

There has been little variation between parties of the left and the right in terms of representation in the national parliament."In general, a larger proportion of women is presented by electoral insignificant political parties and formations such as the Greens, the radical left and various extreme right-wing groups, while the major parties are more reluctant to present women as candidates" (Appleton, Mazur: 98). In 1993 the highest percentage of candidates of women was presented by the extreme left (little chance to be elected). Also in 1997, the left (PS, PCF) presented about 20 per cent more female candidates than the right-wing parties RPR and UDF.

d. National Parliament

Women in France have been eligible to serve in office since 1944. The stabilisation of the party system under the Fifth Republic made it easier for women to become candidates. But although the number of female candidates rose from 2, 3% in 1958 to 23% in 1997, the proportion of elected women in the National Assembly increased only marginally until 1993. In 1946, women represented 5% of the National Assembly. In 1993, almost 50 years later, they represented only 6% of the Assembly, while they constituted 53% of the voters.

The Socialist Party, with a left-wing coalition, won the legislative elections in June 1997. Sixty-three women were elected (42 of them socialists), a mere 10.9 per cent of the new National Assembly but progress nevertheless. In September of the same year 5,9% women were elected to the upper house (senate). Despite the rise of female representation in the National Assembly in 1997, France still lags behind many other countries, especially when compared with countries of the European Union (only in Greece the situation is worse). The low number of women in the French parliament is indicative to the problems' women have in gaining elected, as opposed to appointed, office (Appleton, Mazur: 93).

e.Women in the national government

The current national government, formed by Prime Minister Jospin (PS) in June 1997, consists of 34,4% women (7 of the 17 members are female). The female ministers are mainly responsible for "soft" areas that are considered typically feminine like social affairs, health, education and culture (justice, employment & solidarity, regional planning and environment, youth & sports, culture and communication and schools).

Over the past two decades, the number of female ministers only changed a little. While in 1974 only four women had ministerial positions, that number increased to six in 1983 and remained stable until 1991 (An exception is the conservative cohabitation government of Jacques Chirac between 1986-88 with only one female minister). Within each cabinet women tended to be in lower positions and more men than women were in positions of leadership. However, there has been an improvement: In 1985 a higher proportion of women held positions as staff director, technical adviser and parliamentary aides than in 1981. In 1974 the first ministerial bureau for women’s affairs was established. In 1981 a Ministry of the Rights of Women was created but only a few years later it was downgraded to a non-ministerial status and it disappeared completely in 1988. The government named by Edith Cresson in 1991 included a State Secretary of Women’s Rights and Daily life, Veronique Neierts.

On May 1991, Edith Cresson (PS) became the first female Prime Minister in France. At the time, 86 per cent of women and 77 per cent of men surveyed approved a woman as a prime minister (Appleton, Mazur: p. 87). France has never had a female president so far.

This part of the essay will deal with developments in the political status of French women over time. The change during the Fifth Republic is well illustrated by the fact that French women have earned more rights and liberties in 15 years and 2 presidencies of d'Estaing and Mitterand than during the quarter of century following the end of Second World War. Yet even the two presidential terms did not live up to the aspirations of women concerning their political and social status once again confirming the French phenomena of the gap between theory and practice. To be more precise, equality in theory was translated into unequal opportunities in practice.

Acting for change in the position of women in French politics can be described as positively lacking in all its possible forms. French women have to confront virtual absense of positive action strategies and the little 'action' that does exist, is often insufficient to make any significant change. As for political representation of women, the quantitative improvement made during the last decade owes its origin to appointed and not elected offices.

Action for change took place where and when it did due to the long-term demands by women for rights and equality which were untied under the umbrella of the so-called parity movement. The 'battle for parity' began in the 1970's and carried on well into the 1980's demanding party quotas amongst other things. In 1975, Françoise Giroud published 'Cent mesures pour les femmes' proposing a quota of 15% in local elections. Later the proposals were lifted up to maximum 75% of same sex members on election lists which in other words means 25% quota. The theme of gender parity in politics was taken up by the leftist and Green parties in their election agenda and in the 1990's has replaced the mere quota-thinking dominating the previous decades. Moreover, the position of women in politics became the theme of the presidential campaign in 1995. Observatoire de Parité was created in 1995 in order to make viable propositions on dealing with the matter, aid programmes of action, and provide recommendations on legislative reforms. Publication of 'Manifeste pour la parite' by women politicians followed. During the abovementioned presidential campaign, Lionel Jospin announced his intention to modify the Constitution by introducing the parity principle. The following years witnessed numerous debates on the parity question options and proposals. Adversaries of introducing a separate law on parity argued that introduction of the notion of equality between sexes in an electoral law will substitute that of equality between individuals which is a universal. The debate ended with the victory of parity campaigners when the Constitution was amended in 2000 to include the parity principle. This is one of the major achievements in furthering women's status in French politics.

In addition, various women's policy offices and positions have been established starting in the 1970's. The first ministerial level bureau was established on the initiative of President D'Estaing in 1974 and led by a Françoise Giscard who also occupied a position in the cabinet. Others include the Deputy Secretary of Women's status, 1974-76; the Delegate Ministry of Women's Status and Family, 1978-81; the Ministry of the Rights of Woman, 1981-86; the Deputy Secretary of Women's Rights, 1986-93 and, since 1993, a sub ministry-level office, SDF - the Service des Droits des Femmes.

As for French political parties, all of them failed to improve women's position and are strikingly backward by international comparison. It can be argued that gender has had an impact upon the transformation of French political parties agenda, although it was not the case with their actual action programmes. Ever since 1944 parties across the political spectrum have actively competed for the women's vote by widening their agendas to include certain gender issues, though they failed to translate their zeal into realistic strategies. In addition, the figures on women participation in decision-making are often hard to both obtain and verify, especially in such a country as France with virtual non-existence of women's studies as a field and politicized, underfunded and lacking research on female participation in political decision-making.

In French the expression parity (parité) means equality. The parity movement started in 1992, when some French women called for equal representation by women and men in all elected assemblies. One year later "The Manifesto of the 577 for a Parity-Democracy" appeared in the newspaper Le Monde, asking that a law be voted and amendment of the Constitution to ensure that as many women as men hold elected offices in France. "For pro-parity activists, sexual parity is as a condition for the realisation of democracy" (Haase-Dubosc,1999:3) The parity movement quickly achieved remarkable success in France. Opinion polls showed that the French population was in favour of parity. Political parties picked up the message in terms of parity, and political opportunism helped the concept to gain wide recognition. By 1994, six French lists of candidates for the elections to the European Parliament reached or almost reached parity between women and men. In 1995, during the French presidential election campaign, parity was the issue of the electoral campaign. With the exception of Jean-Marie Le Pen (the far Right candidate), all the candidates were in favour of parity. However, there was not only little consensus on the definition of parity but also no agreement on how to achieve it. There was also a discussion about the constitutional validity of parity.

In June 1999, the Congress agreed to amend the Constitution. The constitutional amendment empowered the law to "favour equal opportunities for women and men for electoral mandates and electoral seats" (www.db-decision.de/CoRe/France.htm:3). The proposed law, which was voted upon by the National Assembly in January 2000 and by the Senate in March 2000, will be effective for the municipal elections of 2001, the parliamentary elections of 2002, the regional elections of 2004 and the European elections of 2003. The list system (municipal and local elections, Senate elections under the proportional system, European Parliament) allows a strict balance in the number of candidates. The proposed law requires an equal number of candidacies (with a margin of one in the case of odd numbers). It provides financial penalties for parliamentary elections (majoritarian elections). Public aid for political parties will be reduced as soon as the deviation from parity reaches 2%.

This essay has aimed to present an overview of women’s political status in France. The overall resulting pattern is rather pessimistic: French women are still widely under-represented in political decision-making, even more so in international comparison with the Nordic states - the forerunners of women’s issues in Europe. In this conclusion we will attempt to account for the present position of women by looking at different factors influencing women’s status and ways of impact.

It would be all too easy to blame all political misfortunes of the French women solely on French political culture and electoral system, although their role in shaping women’s political status can hardly be overestimated. However, there is a number of important factors that have an impact on the issue but often tend to be forgotten. These factors can be divided into four groups: socio-economic and ideological factors, political system, party context and last, but not the least, recruitment process.We will now take a look at each of these factors separately and evaluate their impact on political status of French women.

The socio-economic status of French woman is generally inferior to that of a French man due to a variety of factors discussed earlier in this essay. However, the position of women has undergone significant changes during the last three decades.

Firstly, there have been a general rise in women’s level of education with large numbers of women entering universities and strongly male-dominated elitists schools of higher education. Secondly, massive entry of women into the labour market accompanied by a degree of rise in the share of earned income. France has had one of the highest rates of female labour-force participation since the 19^th century. By the1960’s it was clear that women’s participation in paid labour was increasing, especially among married mothers. The participation rates of women and men were drawing strongly closer together and more notably women tended to stay in working life also after their children were born. Still women had their dual-burden, besides their paid work, they had the main responsibility of domestic work and taking care of children. It is obvious that when women enter from private to public, they gain more social consciousness and become politicized. In France these changes caused increase in electoral participation of women and also women’s interest toward political decision making increased.Thirdly, the decrease in religious practices and chirch attendance is also of importance as women now had more time and also were less prone to have conservative values.

According to Mariette Sineau women lack the necessary resources to gain office. Despite the general rise in women’s education level and improvement in their socio-economic status, the French woman’s entry into politics is not encouraged by the French conservative welfare state regime. The regime ciew the family as a cornerstone of social policy and thus uphold the commitment to defend and maintain the traditional family and its functions. French social insurance excludes non-working wives, while family benefits are designed to encourage motherhood and daycare is not developed. The state only intervenes when the family is unable to take care of itself using its members’ resources. This is hardly of aid if the mother of the family holds a political office which often includes work beyond the so-called office hours.

a. Political culture

In France, political reality and atmosphere is considered to be highly patriarchal and also oligarchic." In theory practising open selection and providing political training for all women and men, are in fact oligarchies which are closed to women, in particular".(Sineau, 1990)

In the French society the traditional role of women as mother who should take care of the children is still dominant. This attitude has an important impact of the role of women in political life: Only a few women pursue a political career, parties as well as selectors are reluctant in advancing women.

One shouldn’t forget that political and and party-bodies are constructed by and for men. Behind them is long tradition of excluding women and neglecting gender-issues.

Elected women in France find themselves as a tiny minority. They are reduced to their sex, considered as different and inferior. "These elected women often feel themselves being closed out by their "otherness", by those who consider them capable of filling only the role attributed to traditional femininity (Jenson, Sineau:249). The feeling of difference is mostly based on women’s physical features.

Most of the women politicians are responsible for "soft" areas. Interviewed women politicians say that inside the French Parliament area they have to suffer rough jokes and they are teased about being different. Women are considered to be capable of filling only one role, that attributed to traditional femininity. In Latin countries like France, men seem to consider political power above all virile power. (Sineau, 1990) After all, they are competent individuals in political decision making and they belong to the female sex, but unfortunately they aren’t seen like that. French women politicians accept partly the notion of their otherness. Rather than seeking simple assimilation, they want to change the ways of doing politics: One thing they would like to change is the language of politics (more relevant to everyday life and truer) and also the political activity (more pragmatic and efficient, useful action, adding to the political agenda issues considered as private or unimportant). Another explanation for the under-representation of women in French politics is that in France the political activity is often considered as an aggressive (struggle for votes) and therefore typical male activity. Often there is also a lack of transparency in the methods of the parties to choose their candidates.

b. Electoral system

The type of electoral system (proportional or majoritarian) plays a determinant role in the number of women elected. In France many political parties run for elections and

there are different electoral systems. We will describe two of them.

1 Presidential and legislative elections to the National Assembly: Majoritarian

The electoral system that is used for presidential elections and for legislative elections to the National Assembly is majoritarian. It consists of a two-round election: During the first round, citizens vote for candidates from different political parties or for independent candidates. The two candidates who received the most votes compete against each other during the second round. For elections to the National Assembly, candidates who received less than 5 per cent of the votes can’t participate in the second round, the remaining candidates make political alliances.

2 Some local and European parliamentary elections: Proportional

The scrutin (ballot) de liste is a electoral system used for the European parliamentary and some local elections. The parties present a list of candidates in a numerical order. The number of candidates elected depend on the votes obtained by their party. In this system it is important to be placed high on the list. The proportional electoral system tends to favour women and makes the use of positive discrimination in the electoral lists easier. The proportional electoral system is a necessary but not sufficient condition for high levels of female representation.

France has lower levels of female representation in the national parliament (majoritarian election) than countries that are using a proportional system. During the 1970s-90s the increase of women in national parliaments was only modest, contrary to countries using the proportional electoral system. The proportion of women elected in the National Assembly has only exceeded the 6 per cent mark when proportional representation was in use as the electoral system (during the Fourth Republic the proportional election benefited female candidates). The number of women elected to the European Parliament, using a proportional list system, has been significantly greater than for elections to the French Parliament. (French women have won 37 of the 87 seats in the European Parliament in the elections in June 1999, that means 42,5% of the seats). Singe-member constituency-based elections encourage candidates who made career in local politics and have strong local ties.Women are often exluded from local politics and have as newcomers difficulties to compete with local notables.

c. Party system:

The Fourth Republic was characterised by a fragmented multiparty system. The establishment of a presidential system and a proportional election system led to the stabilisation of the party system. The more stable party system helped women to become candidates, but didn’t make it easier for them to become elected because parties continued to neglect women as candidates for elected office.

On the surface, French parties have wholeheartedly embraced women's demands in their electoral campaign rhetoric but it was never implemented at the organisational level to the extend it was at the programmatic level. French political parties across the spectrum have failed to advance women both as member ans candidates. All French parties are characterised by a very small proportion of their candidates being female and a larger proportion of women are presented by electorally insignificant political parties such as Greens (before 1989), radical left and various extreme right-wing groups. Major French parties were even less likely to have female candidates. In addition, male party leaders are as a rule reluctant to back women candidates. (Lovenduski & Norris,1993)

If a pattern is to be singled out, it is the leftist parties that first introduced gender issues as part of their agenda and adopted positive discrimination practices, while the rightist parties such as RPR followed later. In France, it has been the PS that has devoted the most attention to women’s rights issues on its campaign platform which was a result of party’s interest in attracting women’s vote and pressure from PS feminists.

Studies of political recruitment in France have demonstrated that traditional pathways to political office have tended to exclude women. Again, while in rhetoric women are accepted and encouraged to join in political decision-making process, in reality it is much harder to do so for a woman than a man.

Traditional way of having a political career on the national level presupposes a long service on the local level: ‘…a career in local government has served as the selection processand the jumping-off point for politically ambitious’ accrording to Ehrmann and Schain. French political system is characterised by exclusion of women from local politics and therefore, the lack of women in national level offices is hardly surprising.

An additional factor of importance is that governmental appointments in the Fifth Republic tend to originate from the senior ranks of the civil service, especially from those educated in the elite grandes écoles such as École Nationale d’Administration and École Polytechnique. These institutions – National School of Administration and the Polytechnic – granted entry only to a very few female students in 1970’s, but later the situation slowly began to change under general pressure of feminist movement on the rise.

Rucruitment process is closely linked with party organisation which is very important as political parties serve as gatekeepers for candidate selection. There are four main types of candidate recruitment process depending on the degrees of centralisation and institutionalisation. In France two types of party of organisation and one type of recruitment process can be found: PC or the Communist Party is of centralised structure and uses formal recruitment process, while UDF – right of centre Union for French Democracy – is using an informal recruitment criteria and also has centralised structure. (Jenson & Sineau, 1994)

For example, in the French socialist party, PS, candidate selection is highly decentralised but at the same time the national party organisation has the power to intervene and change nominations. Such powers have been used both in promote women as candidates as in 1978 and 1981, and to get rid of potential candidates supporting the socialist presidential woman candidate. As for the rightist parties’ recruitment practises, they can be summarised in the statement of Jacques Chirac, the leader of the Gaulllists: ‘Be among the best and, and you will be among the candidates’. (Jenson & Sineau, 1994). This attitude not only serves the Gaullists but more or less the UDF and other smaller groupings of the right.

According to Mariette Sineau women lack the necessary resources to gain office. Despite the general rise in women’s education level and improvement in their socio-economic status, the French woman’s entry into politics is not encouraged by the French conservative welfare state regime. The regime ciew the family as a cornerstone of social policy and thus uphold the commitment to defend and maintain the traditional family and its functions. French social insurance excludes non-working

wives, while family benefits are designed to encourage motherhood and daycare is not developed. The state only intervenes when the family is unable to take care of itself using its members’ resources. This is hardly of aid if the mother of the family holds a political office which often includes work beyond the so-called office hours.

In conclusion, the position of French women is hardly enviable from the European perspective due to various reasons discussed in this essay. The major theme we have found to dominate many areas of French political life and factors influencing women’s position is the gap between theoretical approach and practice. However, the change that took place during the 20^th century is not to be underestimated, and one can speculate on the future position of French women in politics under the modern pressures of globalisation and also the EU’s widening social dimension.

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