Parity — From Perversion to Political Progress: Changing Discourses of ‘French Exception’

Abstract

By 2004, the so-called ‘parity’ law had been applied to a full cycle of French elections. The Presidential elections of 2007, which fielded a woman candidate for the first time in French history, at least partially an effect of the parity campaign, and the subsequent 2007 legislative elections have brought further insights into the workings of parity law. This paper considers the origins and outcomes to date of ‘parity’ in France, quantitatively, but also, in relation to a changing discourse. It argues that an ongoing redefinition of ‘parity’, seen initially as perverse ‘French exception’, reflects an increasing sense of the legitimacy of women's presence at the highest levels of politics and some opening up of the conceptions of French political representation.