The new French
parliament has a record number of women deputies, with more than 26% women
(compared to 18.5% prior to the election on 17 June 2012). Has this new feminisation precipitated an end
to the traditionally gendered composition of parliamentary committees? Alas, the answer appears to be no.
The French parliament
has eight permanent committees of approximately equal size, with deputies each
assigned to one committee. Some
committees are decidedly more prestigious and coveted than others. For example, finance committee is considered
the apogee of power; defence committee has the lowest workload, and is
therefore favoured by deputies seeking higher profile in other roles; and
foreign affairs committee also carries prestige. The constitutional affairs committee is
second to finance in its power and influence.
Meanwhile, social affairs has a wide remit, making it appealing to people
with a range of interests, but it is also renowned for a heavy workload. Cultural and educational affairs tends to be
the most lowly of the eight committees.
It is disappointing, if
not surprising, to learn that the more prestigious and powerful committees are
also the more male-dominated, with women traditionally concentrated into the
committees on social and cultural affairs.
I am currently working on an article that seeks to explain this
phenomenon for the previous parliament.
My findings reveal that the myth that the finance committee is reserved
for long-serving deputies is false. This
was true to some extent for the foreign affairs committee, but not for any of
the others. Therefore this traditional
excuse for the male-domination of this committee does not hold. First-time deputies are more likely to be
found in the cultural affairs and sustainable development committees, whereas
social affairs is not a “dumping ground” for new deputies; membership appears
to reflect a genuine interest in the committee’s work (a finding confirmed by
interviews with deputies). While
experience was more important than sex in explaining the over-representation of
men on the foreign affairs committee, it could not explain away the sex gap on
the other committees, and neither could other control variables such as prior
professional experience or constituency effects. It appears that at least some of the blame
lies with gender stereotyping when allocating committee portfolios.
Fast forward to 2012,
and the results look depressingly familiar, as illustrated in the table
below. This table only includes the
previous and current parliaments, but my data for the two preceding parliaments
(1997-2002, 2002-7) tells much the same story:
Committee
|
2011*
|
2012
|
||||
Men
|
Women
|
% women
|
Men
|
Women
|
% women
|
|
Defence
|
63
|
8
|
11.3%
|
58
|
11
|
15.9%
|
Finance
|
63
|
9
|
12.5%
|
61
|
12
|
16.4%
|
Constitutional affairs
|
62
|
8
|
11.4%
|
56
|
17
|
23.3%
|
Foreign affairs
|
64
|
10
|
13.5%
|
57
|
15
|
20.8%
|
Sustainable development
|
59
|
10
|
14.5%
|
58
|
14
|
19.4%
|
Economic affairs
|
58
|
14
|
19.4%
|
58
|
14
|
19.4%
|
Social affairs
|
49
|
22
|
31.0%
|
42
|
31
|
42.5%
|
Cultural affairs
|
48
|
28
|
36.8%
|
38
|
33
|
46.5%
|
* Until 2009, there were six committees, so the
data for 2011 is a better comparator than the data for 2007. However, there was a significant feminisation
of the finance and foreign affairs committees between 2007 and 2011, as women
transferred out of their originally assigned committees and into more
prestigious ones, so the figures for 2007 were even more gendered.
As we can see, defence
and finance remain stubbornly male-dominated.
Although the proportion of women has increased in both these committees,
it has done so at a slower rate than the proportional increase in women within
parliament as a whole. Constitutional
affairs and foreign affairs have seen bigger increases, but they continue to
have below average levels of women.
Sustainable development has been slow to feminise and the proportion of
women in economic affairs has stagnated, despite the 50% rise in women within
parliament. Meanwhile, the proportion of
women in social and cultural affairs remains excessive, with the latter
approaching parity, despite women being fewer than 27% of deputies
overall. Overall, it appears that while
there may be more women in parliament, when it comes to committee assignments, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
(the more things change, the more they stay the same).
There is one cause for celebration, however. The powerful role of
committee president has been shared relatively equitably, with women being
elected to the chair of three committees. Elisabeth Guigou, former
Justice minister and defeated candidate to be the president (Speaker) of
parliament, receives the consolation prize of presiding over the foreign
affairs committee. Patricia Adam, former vice-president of the defence
committee, now becomes its president. Similarly, Catherine Lemorton, former
vice-president of the social affairs committee, now moves into the top job.
The full executives of each committee (including vice-presidents and
secretaries) are detailed in the table below.
While women still remain under-represented within these positions of
power, the gender gap is not as stark as in previous years. There are no longer any committees with an
all-male executive, and for the first time, one committee (cultural and
educational affairs) has a majority of women at the helm. While women are more likely to wield
influence in the “soft” committees, we can at least take some solace in the
fact that they are rising to positions of prominence.
Committee
|
2011*
|
2012
|
||||||
President
|
VPs
|
Secretaries
|
Total
|
President
|
VPs
|
Secretaries
|
Total
|
|
Defence
|
M
|
1/4
|
0/4
|
1/9
|
F
|
0/4
|
1/4
|
2/9
|
Finance
|
M
|
0/4
|
0/4
|
0/10
|
M
|
2/4
|
0/4
|
2/10
|
Constitutional affairs
|
M
|
0/4
|
0/3
|
0/8
|
M
|
1/4
|
1/4
|
2/9
|
Foreign affairs
|
M
|
1/4
|
0/3
|
1/8
|
F
|
1/4
|
1/4
|
3/9
|
Sustainable development
|
M
|
1/3
|
1/2
|
2/6
|
M
|
1/4
|
0/4
|
1/9
|
Economic affairs
|
M
|
1/4
|
1/3
|
2/8
|
M
|
1/4
|
2/4
|
3/9
|
Social affairs
|
M
|
1/4
|
1/4
|
2/9
|
F
|
1/4
|
2/4
|
4/9
|
Oh. What a shame you have stopped blogging. I'm a Brit living in France, I often write about French politics, and yours is exactly the kind of blog I like to read.. :(
ReplyDeleteI do hope you'll post again...
Thank you for your message. I'm really pleased that you like the blog, and I will try to start blogging again soon. I have had a distracting few months, but it is motivating to know that people do read what I write, so there's an incentive to resume!
DeleteI most certainly hope so Rainbow because a Blogger search for 'French politics' came up with a lot of results but there are very few people who consecrate the majority of their posts on that subject. Some don't ever post on it of course, it's just that they're interested in French politics. Fair enough I suppose. And, it's obvious that you are well-read on the subject.
DeleteSo I've just put myself on your Followers list and you are now on my Blogs I Like list, all in the hope that you may be tempted to post one of these days. Even a little postlet would do! :)
Have a good evening...
Oops, forgot to say incidentally, concerning the issues you raise in your piece, it may also be worth remembering that French governments have a nasty habit of naming as many female ministers as they deem that they can 'safely' do so in order to give the impression that they have fulfilled their 'male/female equality' election promises, only for them to fire, drop, pressure and reshuffle them out as soon as 'decently' possible.
ReplyDeleteJust as Sarkozy got rid of his 'parachuted' female ministers over time, Hollande shall eliminate some of his.
My bottle of good Bordeaux says that there shall be rather less female ministers at the end of this administation than there are now, although I would be only too pleased to be proved wrong...