{"id":81395,"date":"2016-10-18T20:45:55","date_gmt":"2016-10-18T09:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/?p=81395"},"modified":"2017-10-24T18:44:24","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T07:44:24","slug":"french-women-political-representation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/2016\/10\/18\/french-women-political-representation\/","title":{"rendered":"Advancing like an escargot: the representation of French women in politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MyFrenchLife\u2122Despite the fact that France’s population is approximately equal in terms of gender; men continue to heavily dominate French politics. French women hold only a quarter of the seats in the National Assembly, and the same ratio applies in the Senate. <\/strong><\/p>\n

France’s minister of education Najat Vallaud-Belkacem<\/a> said recently, \u201cWell the government is made up of 17 women and 17 men just as Hollande promised, but outside that, in the rest of politics, it is a catastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Gaulle’s gamble<\/span><\/h3>\n

French women were first granted the right to vote in October 1944.\u00a0Yes, you read that correctly: 1944.\u00a0That’s over 150 years after the establishment of libert\u00e9, egalit\u00e9 et fraternit\u00e9<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Charles de Gaulle<\/a> gave it to them by decree issued by the Gouvernement provisoire de la R\u00e9publique fran\u00e7aise<\/em> in Algeria. It was for their contribution to the war effort. Or so he said. But many believe there was an ulterior motive. He was gambling that women would vote conservative and thus see off the communists in the forthcoming post-liberation elections.<\/p>\n

\"MyFrenchLife\u2122<\/p>\n

Le grand Charles\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0political ideology also coloured his ideas in other spheres \u2013 he was intent on revising the narrative of the fall and occupation of France<\/a>. So in an attempt to reunite France, he massaged the facts concerning the number of r\u00e9sistants<\/em> versus collaborateurs <\/em>during the Occupation.<\/p>\n

Female Maquisards under-recognised<\/span><\/h3>\n

De Gaulle also downgraded the involvement of female maquisards. <\/em>Between 1940 and 1946 he awarded over 1000 Compagnons de la Lib\u00e9ration<\/a><\/em>. Only six were presented to women.<\/p>\n

Not only were French women under-valued for their contribution to booting out the Nazis \u2013 they were ruthlessly scapegoated where there had been liaisons and affairs with Germans. But for many, there\u2019d been no alternative. Women were left with little or no income as their husbands were among the 1.8 million French POWs imprisoned in German camps.<\/p>\n

\"MyFrenchLife\u2122<\/p>\n

Fear and hunger were commonplace. Rationing and shortages made keeping a family together an ongoing nightmare. A relationship with a Boche <\/em><\/a>was often the only way out.<\/p>\n

The birth rate boomed.\u00a0But attitudes hardened at Liberation and the consequences were severe. Being pregnant or having a child by a German soldier was now considered tantamount to treason.<\/p>\n

In late 1944 (when French women were first thinking about voting) a reign of terror swept France in the wake of the Wehrmacht retreats<\/a>. Known as the \u00e9puration sauvage, <\/em>it was a time of finger-pointing and the settling of scores. Women bore the brunt of this savagery. Head shaving, naked parades and being tarred and feathered were some of the consequences for collaboration horizontale \u2013 <\/em>women who’d had sexual relations with Germans.<\/p>\n

French women’s representation today<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"MyFrenchLife\u2122Today, 70 years after de Gaulle\u2019s gamble with the women\u2019s vote, \u2018snail’s pace\u2019 could well describe the progress of females in politics in France. Although things have improved in recent years, they still seem to have the caca<\/em> end of the stick.<\/p>\n

But let’s not spend too much time laughing up our sleeves at French women in the parliament trailing behind. Some Anglo-Saxon countries are hardly better. For example, in the UK female representation<\/a> in the upper and lower houses is 29 and 25 percent respectively. In Australia, it is 27 and 38 percent.<\/p>\n

So finally, here\u2019s the rub: how long do you think it will take women to achieve worldwide parity in politics? Or is, \u201cWhat is the meaning of life?\u201d, an easier question to answer?<\/p>\n

\n

Do you think women are under-represented in France and the world? What changes would you like to see?\u00a0<\/strong>Share your thoughts and comments with us in the comments box below.<\/p>\n

\n
Image credits:
\n1. ‘Snail’s pace’ by Randy Robertson, via flickr<\/a>\u00a0(feature image)
\n2. Parisian suffragettes, via wikipedia<\/a>
\n3.\u00a0Charles de Gaulle, via wikipedia<\/a>
\n4.\u00a0L\u2019\u00e9puration \u00e0 la Lib\u00e9ration en France, via wikipedia<\/a>
\n5. Nadine Morano, via wikipedia<\/a><\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The progress of French women in politics in France has been moving at \u2018snail\u2019s pace\u2019. Find out why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11467,"featured_media":81396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[1120,1119,1125,7182],"tags":[472,4449,1176,4450,1177,4451,1349,4452,1636,4453,103,1718,4454,172,1770,4456,213,2004,4457,220,2605,4458,237,3339,4459,240,3625,4460,281,3628,4461,312,3630,4462,388,4059,4463,442,4447,4464,460,4448],"class_list":["post-81395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-beyond","category-reportage-and-societe","category-columns","category-perspectives","tag-voting","tag-senate","tag-french-politics","tag-egalite","tag-french-women","tag-fraternite","tag-women","tag-gouvernement-provisoire-de-la-republique-francaise","tag-hollande","tag-french-occupation","tag-australia","tag-uk","tag-compagnons-de-la-liberation","tag-culture","tag-germany","tag-nazis","tag-france","tag-war","tag-german-camps","tag-french","tag-najat-vallaud-belkacem","tag-pow","tag-french-history","tag-algeria","tag-boche","tag-french-life","tag-charles-de-gaulle","tag-liberation","tag-in-english","tag-3628","tag-wehrmacht-retreats","tag-learning","tag-maquisards","tag-women-in-france","tag-politics","tag-liberte","tag-voting-in-france","tag-tradition","tag-gender-equality","tag-female-representation-in-politics","tag-vie-francaise-2","tag-national-assembly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11467"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}