Introduction
France
| Quota Information | Parliament Information | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Are there legislated quotas? | Yes | Structure of parliament | Unicameral |
| For the Single/Lower House? | Yes | >Current members | 577 |
| Percentage of women | 37.26% | ||
| Source: Gender Quotas Database | Source: New Parline | ||
Note: this page was last updated on October 3, 2022.
Election for:
France Parliament 2022
July 12, 2024
Age, gender, profession: Who are France's new members of Parliament?
Only 208 women will sit in the Assemblée Nationale, representing just over a third of all MPs. This is the second time in two years that the proportion of women in the Assemblée has fallen.
July 10, 2024
Going for gold: Meet five Olympic parliamentarians
Excelling as a world-class athlete and performing parliamentary work both require determination, collaboration, and a commitment to excellence. As we count down to the Paris 2024 Olympics, let's meet five trailblazers who succeeded in both arenas.
July 4, 2024
What France’s snap vote says about US women and politics
Around the world, the far-right is using anti-immigrant rhetoric around protecti
June 29, 2022
French lawmakers pick Yael Braun-Pivet as first ever woman president of National Assembly
France's lower house of parliament on Tuesday agreed to pick an MP from President Emmanuel Macron's centrist coalition as the first woman speaker, despite the ruling alliance losing its majority in legislative elections.
June 21, 2022
Cleaner who led pay strike faces former minister in Paris election
Rachel Keke, who coordinated successful strike for better pay and conditions, takes on Macron’s former sports minister.
June 20, 2022
Post-poll, France's new parliament sees slight drop in women MPs
France has lagged in gender parity in politics, coming 33rd out of 185 spots on the Inter-Parliamentary Union's monthly ranking of women in national parliaments
May 17, 2022
Elisabeth Borne: Who is France's new prime minister and what's on her to-do list?
Centrist politician Elisabeth Borne was appointed France’s new prime minister on Monday, becoming the second woman to hold the post in the country.
April 21, 2022
Record women candidates haven’t made French vote gender friendly
By Alice Kantor
Few feminist policies have been campaign talking points during the election.
March 10, 2022
After #MeToo, the female factor shakes up France’s presidential race
Two women frontrunners seek to unseat Macron as feminist issues move up the agenda.
February 22, 2022
France: An observatory of sexist and sexual violence in politics
The presidential campaign in sight. To fight against physical and psychological violence against women, the feminists behind the #MeTooPolitique movement announced on Monday February 21 the launch of an observatory on gender-based and sexual violence.
January 31, 2022
France: women candidates for presidency highlight politics' sexism problem
France has never had a woman as president. With a number of female candidates in the election race this time, could that finally change? Challenges range from a #MeToo campaign to an "invisible" barrier to the top job.
January 17, 2022
Former justice minister Christiane Taubira joins France's presidential race
France's former justice minister Christiane Taubira on Saturday launched her bid to unify the floundering French left and challenge President Emmanuel Macron in April presidential elections, but she faces a slew of competing candidates reluctant to cede the limel
September 13, 2021
Two women campaign to become France’s 1st female president
PARIS (AP) — Two French politicians kicked off their presidential campaigns Sunday, seeking to become France’s first female leader in next year’s spring election.
September 13, 2021
Socialist Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo sets sights on 2022 presidential race
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo threw her hat in the ring for France's 2022 presidential election on Sunday in Rouen.
December 18, 2020
City of Paris is fined 90,000 euros for naming too many women to senior positions
The city of Paris has been fined 90,000 euros for an unusual infraction: It appointed too many positions in the government.
January 13, 2020
Marlène Schiappa: “For generations, we have been nominating men just because they are men”
Marlène Schiappa, Minister of State for Gender Equality and the Fight against Discrimination in France, attended the 25th year Regional Review Meeting of the Beijing Platform for Action for the UN Economic Commission for Euro
August 17, 2018
France's gender equality Minister has already cracked down on catcalling and online abuse. She's just getting started
The first time a man stopped Marlène Schiappa and said something obscene, she was 14 years old and walking down a street in Paris’ northern 19th arrondissement. Shocked, she rushed home to her apartment and told her family. They were unsurprised.
July 5, 2018
Thousands honor Simone Veil as she enters Panthéon
Simone Veil's concentration camp number - 78651 - was displayed on giant screens along the crowd-thronged route her cortège took to the Panthéon on Sunday, where she is to be interred among iconic figures from French politics, culture, society, and h
June 20, 2017
France elects record number of women to parliament
France voted a record number of wom
May 17, 2017
Macron cabinet: Women are half of France's new minsters
French President Emmanuel M
May 15, 2017
France: Half of Macron's legislative election candidates are women
The party of French President
February 22, 2014
French women’s liberation movement founder dies
Antoinette Fouque, the co-founder the French Women’s Liberation Movement, has died at the age of 77.
She died at her home in Paris between Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.
October 17, 2013
French MP clucking at woman in parliament sparks anger over sexism
It's raining machismo in France. Chucking it down, in fact.
From parliament to local councils, via national media and regional newspapers, storms have erupted as French men indulge in misogynist outbursts that could have come from the cave age.
August 21, 2013
Historic All-Woman Race For Mayor of Paris
Four women, one seat. So far, the 2014 mayoral election in Paris is a single-sex contest.
August 16, 2013
Paris Mayoral Race Hosts an All-Female Field
The two biggest parties have chosen their candidates: Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, of the center-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), and Anne Hidalgo of the Parti Socialiste (PS).
July 28, 2013
The straight-shooting woman taking on the 'boys' club' of French politics
PARIS -- The politician known as “NKM” is a rising star in France - a tough, military-trained engineer first elected to the National Assembly at the age of just 29 and tipped by some as a future president.
May 30, 2012
Do France's Women Voters Want a Woman Elected President?
The survey conducted among women voters in France suggested that women voter prefer Nicolas Sarkozy to Segolene Royal, while for men voters it is in reverse.
May 30, 2012
Black Star, Muslim Feminist Join French Government
President Nicolas Sarkozy's new government lineup gives a fresh nod to France's ethnic diversity, with a militant Muslim feminist and a young woman of Senegalese origin taking junior minister posts.
May 30, 2012
Sarkozy's Gender Revolution
New French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to shake up and renew France when he took office. And he started with his cabinet, which includes 11 women - three of them from minority backgrounds.
May 30, 2012
France: French Wonder Why Few Women Seek Politics
People in France think the absence of female representation in politics is not due to lack of interest on their part, according to a poll by CSA published in Le Parisien.