Women representation in politics: A comparative approach between France and the Nordic countries

Résumé du document

Nowadays, women are increasingly annexing high political positions in State office. Recently, three women reached the status of ?Head of State' in different countries. They were Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Ellen Johnson from Sirlead in Liberia and Tarja Halonen in Finland. Moreover, women play more crucial roles on the political scene than before, as it is in the case of France with the ambitious Ségolène Royal who is currently working very hard to become a possible presidential candidate and to overcome the male scoffing. Nonetheless, progress in the inclusion of women's voices in politics and government ventures has proved difficult. Despite some well-known world leaders, such as Margaret Thatcher, Gro Harlem Bruntland and Golda Meir, only thirty-nine countries have ever elected a woman President or Prime Minister. According to a UN report, women comprise less than one-tenth of the world's cabinet ministers (Inglehart and Norris, 2003). Indeed, the gender variability is often used in political studies to explain political phenomena, in confronting men and women behaviors, even if other elements (like age, profession, social status) are available to grasp striking individual differences in reference politics. However, it is important to introduce qualifications concerning the relevance of a gender approach because women do not always constitute a homogeneous group.

Extraits

[...] Nevertheless, this process does not necessarily and automatically benefit women's life and consequently women's representation in politics. In summary, it has been put forward that there exist structural barriers, such as levels of socioeconomic development and the proportion of women in professional and managerial occupations, playing a key role in women political representation. Actually, early sociological approaches considered that the social system, composed of the occupational, educational, and socioeconomic status of women, was playing a crucial role when determining the ‘eligibility pool for elected office' (Inglehart and Norris, 2003). [...]

[...] Unfinished Democracy.Women in Nordic Politics. Oxford: Pergamon Press Dahlerup,D. (1988). From a Small to a Large Minority:Women in Scandinavian Politics, Scandinavian political Studies 11(4),275- Dahlerup,D. (1989). Vi har ventetlenge nok-hândbok i kvinnerepresentasjon.Kobenhavn.Nordisk Ministerrad Inglehart, Ronald(1971), The silent Revolution in Europe: Inter- generational Change in Post-Industrial Societies, in American Political Science Review, vol pp.991- Kanter,R.M. (1993) [1977], Men and Women of the Corporation, New- York:Basic books Nagel, Anne-Hilde (2000), The development of citizenship in Norway: Marshall remodelled, in Solvi Sogner and Gro Hagemann Women's politics and women in politics. [...]

[...] The refusal of quotas may be explained by the underlying ideal of consensus. The original French parity The French parity guarantees equal numbers of male and female candidates on party lists in local, regional, parliamentary and European elections. Nonetheless, obstacles to the French parity movement are based on the constitutional conception of an abstract citizenship that laid down a universalistic conception proscribing any particulars in the political scene. Yet, in 1998, the Constitution was modified so that to introduce a new paragraph in Article 3 requiring that law shall favour equal access of women and men to offices. [...]

[...] Numerous women's organizations and groups appeared in the political parties not only to point the equal opportunity need but also to attract new women voters. Nowadays, most of the Nordic political parties have equality committees and feminist groups some of which dated from this period and which are often very powerful especially in Sweden and in Finland. Thus, we can easily conclude that France lagged behind the Nordic countries as this country did not experience an emergence of organizations for women's liberation and suffrage until the beginning of the 20th century. [...]

[...] Women have gained a new presence in the public political sphere in Nordic area, moving from a ‘small to a large minority' (GEP research program number 1). Finally, concerning women access to executive branch, Denmark and Finland were precursory. Actually, a woman has reached a ministership for the first time in history respectively in 1924 and in 1926. Norway and Sweden waited in the 1940s. On the other hand, in 2004, the French government was composed of 18.7 percent of women women out of 32 ministers). [...]