20th century An ordinance issued by General de Gaulle on 21 April 1944, titled "Ordinance on the Organization of Public Authorities in France After Liberation," stipulated that "women are voters and eligible under the same conditions as men." On 21 April 1944, during the October 1945 elections, 33 women were elected as deputies, representing 5.6% of the total deputies. In 1977,
Françoise Giroud proposed in her
100 Measures for Women a limit of 85% representation for one gender in municipal elections. In 1982,
Gisèle Halimi, founder of
Choisir la cause des femmes, proposed an amendment to a bill on municipal election organization, limiting the proportion of seats held by one gender to 70%. The
Socialist Party adjusted this to 75%. The law was adopted on 27 July 1982. However, deputies challenged an unrelated article before the
Constitutional Council. In November 1982, the Council upheld the law but struck down the quota amendment, deeming it unconstitutional for categorizing the French population into eligible persons and voters. The
United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, ratified by France on 14 December 1983, marked a significant step. It obligated states to take appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all areas, allowing differential treatment of women and men. In 1994, women comprised only 5.6% of the French Parliament, compared to a European average of 11.6%, ranking France second-to-last, ahead of
Greece. In 1996, with women's representation in assemblies stagnant at 6%,
Yvette Roudy published the "Manifesto for Parity" in ''
L'Express''. Signed by ten women from both left and right—Michèle Barzach,
Frédérique Bredin,
Édith Cresson, Hélène Gisserot,
Catherine Lalumière, Véronique Neiertz, Monique Pelletier,
Yvette Roudy,
Catherine Tasca, and
Simone Veil—it marked a bipartisan effort.
21st century Constitutional Law No. 99-569 of 8 July 1999 amended the Constitution to affirm that "the law promotes equal access for women and men to electoral mandates and elected offices." France became the first country to adopt a parity system for single-round elections. In 2009, financial penalties for non-compliance with parity in legislative elections totaled €5 million. Between 2012 and 2017, penalties reached €28 million, or 8% of total party funding. Many parties opted to field male candidates and accept reduced funding. This positioned France among the top 20 countries for women's representation in their primary legislative chamber. In the 2017 senatorial elections, anti-parity strategies by political parties limited progress, with women's representation rising slightly from 25% to 29.2%. In the 2022 legislative elections, parity remained unachieved, with women comprising 37.3% of deputies, a slight decrease from 2017. == Legislative background ==