Equality Regimes Compared: France's Political and Corporate Quotas

Abstract

This article differentiates parity, the French political quota from the French Corporate Board Quota. Further, the article articulates how an examination of political quotas after the corporate board quota was passed could be beneficial in reexamining and reformatting political quotas. Both share the goal of increasing representation of women. The French political quota preceded the Corporate Board Quota and was relatively unsuccessful, which may have led to the difference in the implementation of the Corporate Board Quota. The paper concludes that the Corporate Board Quotas is both more modest and stronger than the political board quotas. More modest because the focus of the remedy is on the board and not the executive committee, which is a less powerful institution within the corporate governance structure. The Corporate Board Quota is stronger because they mandate seats and not merely candidacies. There are advantages to the focus within the corporate context of different sites of governance and different ways to affect governance which suggest other mechanisms for political equality regimes.