Political science

Time for a female head of state? The voters are ready!

Gender equality remains to be achieved in politics, says  Isabelle Giraud, who defended her thesis on the topic last spring in the Department of Political Science at the Université de Montréal.

Although France has yet to have a female finance minister, as we have in Quebec, a major and traditionally masculine ministry – Defence – is currently headed by  Michèle Alliot-Marie of the Rassemblement pour la République. Giraud says that “The French have evolved, but their politicians have not. There is still a huge gap today between the political class and the French public.” In France, as in Quebec, the number of women in government is barely over the 30% mark. 

While Quebec political parties have taken note of  the rising militancy of women, we have yet to elect a woman premier, and only three out of 10 members of the National Assembly are women. Parity is still far off, although Quebec is the only jurisdiction in the Western world where there has been no perceived need for gender parity legislation.

Ségolène Royal, running for the Socialist Party in the French presidential elections, won 32% of intended voters in a TNS Sofres/Unilog survey on June 20, placing her at the head of the pack of potential presidents. But she faces dissension from within the ranks. At least eight politicians from the Socialist Party, including her own husband, François Hollande, first secretary of the party, considered running for president, which would have fragmented the militant vote and worsened Royal’s chances. “The politicians are resistant to the idea, but the people seem to be ready,” Giraud believes.

It took about 50 interviews with experts on the feminist cause on both sides of the Atlantic to produce Giraud’s research, which runs to more than 60 pages. To put it all in perspective, though, Giraud notes that “Although the situation is really not satisfactory, we should remember that in 1960, women were excluded from the world of politics, traditionalist regimes in France and Quebec were denying women (full) citizenship, and there was no recognition of reproductive rights.”

The project comparing France and Quebec started in 1998, when the two governments embarked on two radically different policies for “feminizing” their elected assemblies. “In France, the Jospin government put forward parity reform, while the Quebec government announced funding for a program that would train women for politics,” Giraud explained in a telephone interview from France, where she returned to live after completing her studies. Her doctorate was jointly supervised by  Jane Jenson of the Université de Montréal and Armelle Le Bras-Chopard of the Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Over the subsequent decade, the fight for abortion rights gave women a structure. “At the time, only 10% of women were in the Socialist Party, none in any other parties,” Giraud points out. “And the stereotype of the modern woman who works (outside the home) while still being the traditional mother persists.”  In Quebec, on the other hand, feminism became institutionalized in 1973, when the Conseil du Statut de la femme was set up. When the Parti québécois came to power, the feminist struggle acquired full legitimacy. In fact, although there is no ministry for the status of women in Quebec, the fact that women are present in secretariats and ministries in various capacities gives them a voice in political debates. In France, however, things are moving more slowly, although French feminists are becoming more militant. Legislation on abortion was passed in 1974, and certain formal rights have been granted, without much concern about real-life applications. “Awareness is growing,” says Giraud.

Despite all these upheavals, the situation is changing – slowly: in 1988, 18% of Quebec women were actively involved in politics, whereas French women were still virtually absent from the political scene.