1. Guéraiche, William, Les Femmes et la République. Paris: Editions de l'Atelier/Editions Ouvrières, 1999 (p.39).Google Scholar

2. See in particular, with regard to the United States, Evans's, Sarah M. work, A History of Women in America, Free Press Paperbacks, 1997.Google Scholar

3. See in particular, with regard to the United Kingdom, the publications of the Fabian Society, and in particular “The Long March to Equality”, available on the Society's web site at <www.fabiansociety.org.uk/publication/intro.html.>

4. Zeldin, Theodore, Histoire des passions françaises de 1848 à 1945. Paris: Le Seuil, Coll Point Histoire, 1980 (Volume I, p.399).Google Scholar

5. These three women, appointed Under-Secretaries of State, were Suzanne Brunschwig (Education), Irene Joliot-Curie (Scientific Research) and Suzanne Lacore (Protection of Children).

6. See Kramer, Jane, “Letter from Europe, Liberty, Equality, Sorority, French women get a revolution of their own”, in The New Yorker, 29 05 2000.Google Scholar

7. Article 17 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, as amended by the Treaty on European Union, stipulates that “…Citizenship of the Union shall complement and not replace national citizenship”.

8. It would be wrong to believe that women have the right to vote everywhere in the world. Thus, a British newspaper reports that the High Court of Justice of Kuwait rejected the call by an association of women pleading that the refusal to grant this right to women was unconstitutional (The Economist, 8 July 2000).

9. Larrère, Catherine, “Le sexe ou le rang? La condition des femmes selon la philosophie des Lumières”, in Encyclopédie politique and et historique des femmes, Ch. , Fauré ed., 1st ed.Paris: PUF, 03. 1997Google Scholar. Book V of the “Recueil de réflexions et d'observations” entitled “L'Emile ou de l'Education”, published in 1762, is an edifying example of the prejudices of the time. For Rousseau, , for example, “… woman is made especially to please man; if man must please her in his turn, this is less directly necessary, his merit lies in his power; he pleases simply by being strong …” Paris: Editions Coll Gallimard, La Pléiade, 1969, p.693).Google Scholar

10. See Zagrebelski, Gustavo, “Le Droit en douceur”, Aix-Marseilles: PUF, Economica, 2000.Google Scholar

11. Comments on the report of the Constitutional Committee, 2 Oct. 1789, quoted by Troper, Michel “La notion de citoyen sous la Révolution française”, in La Constitutional de l'an III ou l'ordre républicain, Burgundy University publications, Editions Universitaires de Dijon, Oct. 1998.Google Scholar

12. Op. cit.

13. Text 19, “pour l'egalité politique des hommes et des femmes”, 1790, in Complete Works, volume X (published at the time in the “Journal de la Société de 1789”).Google Scholar

14. See Jacques Guilhaumou and Martine Lapied, “L'action politique des femmes sous la Revolution française” in Encyclopédie politique and et historique des femmes, op. cit.

15. See Gouges, Olympe de, Oeuvres. Paris: Editions Mercure de France, 1986.Google Scholar

16. , Tocqueville further affirms in “Democracy in America” that “democratic people must preserve virile manners …” Paris, 1842 (Volume IV, p.346).Google Scholar

17. “L'action des femmes sous la Révolution américaine”, in Christiane Fauré, op. cit.

18. See Kerber, Linda K., No constitutional right to be ladies. New York: Hill and Wang, 1998.Google Scholar

19. In “Democracy in America”, Tocqueville records this propensity of Americans to form associations “of all kinds, religious, moral, serious or futile, with general or specialised, large or small remits…”.

20. See Sarah Evans, op. cit., Chapter 7.

21. See the very interesting work of Sarah Evans, op. cit. The author mentions in particular President Wilson's arrival in 1916 at a meeting of one of the principal female organisations: the “National Woman Suffrage Association”. “I have not come to ask you to be patient, because you have been, but I have come to congratulate you that there has been a force behind you that will beyond any peradventure be triumphant and for which you can afford a little while to wait”, he said to reassure members on the future success of their demands. (When the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920 was passed, 11 States had already granted women the right to vote.) It should be noted that in New Zealand, another common law country, women acquired the right to vote in 1893.

22. These lithographs are reproduced in a work published by Editions Vilo-Paris, 1974, with foreword by Françoise Parturier.

23. In the foreword to the above work on Daumier, F. Parturier notes that “while generalisations are usually false, it must nevertheless be pointed out that among republican and socialist thinkers it was the aristocrats Condorcet under the Revolution and Saint-Simon after the Restoration who pleaded the cause of women”, while the upper and lower middle classes supporting the same philosophies “could not tolerate a woman dealing with anything but her house and children”.

24. “George Sand's illustration had the main purpose of gaining recognition for the fact that France had an excessive number of superior women” after considering it regrettable that “this sentimental leprosy spoiled many women who, without their claim to genius, would have been charming”, in La Muse du Département, Paris, 1843.Google Scholar

25. “De l'Allemagne”, Paris, 1815.Google Scholar

26. In “La Voix des Femmes”, Eugénie Niboyet published a letter calling readers to vote for George Sand, thinking that she would be “accepted by men”. Quoted in the work devoted to G. Sand by Michelle Perrot, Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1997, p.531. Michelle Perrot reproduced a text published posthumously which enlightens us on the positions of G. Sand, showing that she intended to plead for equality in marriage, while seeking to dissuade women from standing as candidates, “as they might be taken seriously” (p.542).

27. Op. cit., pp.36 ff.

28. In Cass. 6 Apr. 1914, Delle Halbwachs, S. 1915.1.64, the Cour de cassation held that “the exercise of civil rights is independent of the quality of citizen, which confers solely political rights … the Constitution of 4 Nov. 1848, by substituting the universal suffrage for the restricted or electoral-tax-based suffrage, from which women were excluded, never extended to non-male citizens … the right to elect the representatives of the country to the various electoral offices … this is clear, not only from the text of the Constitution of 1848 and of the electoral laws which followed it, but more still from their spirit, attested by the legislative history, and also by the fact that it has been applied without interruption since the universal suffrage was introduced”.

29. By Laurence Klejman and Florence Rochefort, with foreword by Michelle Perrot, at Presses de la Foundation Nationale de Sciences Politiques.

30. Here again there is a substantial number of extremely interesting works of political science, including the already quoted book of William Gueraiche who covers the period between 1944 and 1979.

31. At the meeting in Geneva in 1920 of the “Congress of the International Alliance for Women's Suffrage”, out of the 28 States represented in this NGO, 15 had already given women the right to vote either at all elections or at some of them.

32. And not 200 States or so, as is now the case.

33. René Viviani was the first Minister of Labour in France (1906–10).

34. Aristide Briand (1862–1932) was minister 25 times and Prime Minister 11 times.

35. See the report on parity (No. 1240, 2 Dec. 1998, p.11) by Catherine Tasca, then Chair of the Legal Affairs Committee of the National Assembly.

36. Catherine Tasca is today Minister for Culture and Communication in Lionel Jospin's Government.

37. Sénat, J. O., Sitting of 7 July 1932, pp.1029 ff.Google Scholar

38. Editions Domat Montchrestien, pp.481 ff.

39. In his Treatise of constitutional law, published in 1923 (Boccard ED), Duguit quotes Saint Paul: “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence” (1 Timothy 2,12 (AV)): These words actually apply by way of practical advice from the Apostle Paul to the early Christians regarding conduct of prayer meetings, and in particular, to women, and not as political injunctions.

40. In these years, moreover, a group of determined Catholic women, mostly from the upper middle class, banded together in a movement to promote women's rights and responsibilities (like Louise Weiss). These “Ladies of the League”, as they were called, later formed “L'Action Catholique Générale Féminine” (ACGF), a movement that was strongly committed in social and Christian terms. Highly influential in the French provinces, thanks in particular to its newspaper “L'Echo des Françaises”, with a circulation in the hundreds of thousands.

41. Senators in France are elected at the second degree by a college of “grand electors” composed above all of mayors and municipal councillors of the rural districts.

42. See his treatise referred to above of 1923, pp.453 ff.

43. See his treatise referred to above of 1927, in the chapter entitled “National Sovereignty”.

44. Editions Dalloz, pp.312 ff.

45. Joseph Barthélémy, Deputy, had already moved in this direction, in particular in a report to the Chamber of Deputies of 20 Feb. 1923 (No. 5610). He became infamous for serving as Minister for Justice under Marshal Pétain's Vichy régime introduced in France in 1940. His progressive standpoint on women's political rights probably explains that the draft constitution of Pétain (which never succeeded) would have extended the right to vote and stand for election to women as well as to men.

46. It is odd to observe in certain law manuals comments on the “intrinsic” characteristics of the female nature which are alleged to influence their voting patterns, where anti-feminist undertones are scarcely concealed. The same arguments are always used to decry women's lack of political maturity: “… women do not vote for women, a constituency set aside for a woman is a lost constituency, etc”. Halimi, Giséle, in Le Préambule de la Constitution de 1946, un contrat de société, Paris, 1994, Documentation Française, p.39Google Scholar, quotes these prejudices which still appear in law textbooks in 2000, updated to include the parity provisions.

47. See the decision of this Court of 16 July 1971 on freedom of association (CC decision n° 71–44 DC, Rec. p.29; Bell, J., French Constitutional Law (Oxford 1992), p.272Google Scholar).

48. With the almost unique but considerable exception of Jules Laferrière's textbook; in his work referred to above on Constitutional Law, he devotes almost 10 pages to the question of the vote for women, studying it most delicately in terms of comparative law and of political history. Reference can also be made to Professor Robert Pelloux's article on the Preamble to the 1946 Constitution, a locus classicus (Revue de Droit Public, 1947, p.347)Google Scholar. The author stresses that the recognition of women's rights “equal to those of man” represents “a considerable extension … owing to the tradition of masculinity strongly anchored in our public law”. But he devotes no more than 15 lines or so to the subject.

49. Article 7 of the loi on the Civil Service of 1946 prohibits “all discrimination … between the two genders”; but the practical implementation of this provision was gradual, to say the least.

50. The draft amendment read: “men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and in every place subject to its jurisdiction”.

51. This Commission was, however, chaired by Eleanore Roosevelt.

52. Of the 35 needed, only 11 responded (see Sarah Evans, op. cit.).

53. For example, Article 3(3) of the German Constitution of 1949, according to which “no-one may be discriminated for or against on grounds of gender …” is supplemented by Article 3(2) (inserted by the loi of 27 Oct. 1994) which provides (para.2) that “the state shall promote the effective implementation of equality of rights for women and men and shall act to eliminate existing advantages”. Likewise in Portugal, the 1976 Constitution which merely provided that “no-one may be privileged, favoured, disadvantaged, deprived of a right or exempted from a duty on grounds of … gender … ” today confers on the State, following revision of the Constitution on 3 Sept. 1997, responsibility for promoting equality between men and women, which opens the way indeed to positive discrimination (new article 9h). The Austrian Constitution developed in the same direction. Since the constitutional revision of 22 July 1998, it has encouraged local authorities—the Federation, Länder and communes—to take all measures to encourage de facto equality between men and women (Article 7–2). Last illustrative example: The Finnish Constitution, as last amended on 11 June 1999, not only provides that “discrimination on grounds of gender” to promote equality between men and women is possible “if there is a valid reason” but also promotes measures to develop “the equality of the sexes … in social activities and in working life, in particular in the fixing of remuneration and other terms of employment …” (article 6).

54. The new constitutional provisions adopted in Portugal at the revision of 3 Sept. 1997 might enable the law to establish positive discrimination in political life. While Article 9 entrusts to the public authorities the responsibility for “promoting equality between men and women”, article 112, like the French constitutional reform on parity, requires the law to “promote equality in the exercise of civic and political rights”. But no electoral legislation has so far been enacted to give concrete expression to this objective (see Gwenaële Calves, “La parité entre hommes et femmes dans l'accés aux fonctions électives. Faut-il réviser la Constitution?” in , Curapp, Questions sensibles, PUF, 1998).Google Scholar

55. In general, positive discrimination is not provided for only at internal constitutional level but also in international law. The concept of positive discrimination in employment also appears in article 141(4) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, which provides: “With a view to ensuring full equality in practice between men and women in working life, the principle of equal treatment shall not prevent any Member State from maintaining or adopting measures providing for specific advantages in order to make it easier for the under-represented sex to pursue a vocational activity or to prevent or compensate for disadvantages in professional careers”. In its decision on the Treaty of Amsterdam (CC decision n° 97–394 DC, 31 Dec. 1997, Rec. p.344), the Conseil Constitutionnel made no comment on these provisions but recognised that they were constitutional.

56. See Lenoir, Noëlle “Les aspects juridiques et éthiques de la contraception” in La Contraception, Liberté ou Contrainte, collective work published by Editions Odile Jacob, 1999, Paris (forthcoming in English).Google Scholar

57. Under the Civil Code (Code Napoléon), married women lacked capacity at civil law. Only gradually did a series of Acts (1938, 1945 and 1985, in particular) remove the inferior status of married women.

58. See in particular, Mossuz-Lavau, Janine, “Le vote des femmes en France (1945–1993)”, in Revue Française de Sciences Politiques No. 4, Aug. 1993, p.673Google Scholar. The author proceeds on the basis of, in particular, the analyses of electoral sociology of the Political Science professor, Alain Lancelot (subsequently appointed to the French Conseil Constitutionnel).

59. Op. cit.

60. Loi n° 2000–493 of 6 June 2000 to promote equal access of women and men to electoral office (Journal Officiel 7 06 2000, p.8560).Google Scholar

61. The word “parity” is never used. It appears neither in the Constitutional Act nor in the Electoral Act that establish it. But the term is so often used by lawyers and political economists in their comments on the reform that there is no escaping it. See, for example, Mossuz-Lavau, Janine, “Femmes/Hommes, pour la Parité”, Editions des Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1998, Paris).Google Scholar

62. CC decision n° 82–146 of 18 Nov. 1982, Rec. 66; Bell, J., French Constitutional Law, p.349.Google Scholar

63. The reform was not a party political matter. What this means is that it was not promoted by a particular party or group of parties against the others, as is often the case in France with regard to the legislative reforms on social matters, such as the Abortion Act (enacted with support from the left after a Bill had been presented by the Government of President Giscard d'Estaing and promoted by Mrs Simone Veil, then Minister for Social Affairs). The provision on the “mixité” of municipal lists, annulled by the Constitutional Council in 1982, did not appear in the Bill submitted by Gaston Deferre, Socialist Minister for the Interior, on the reform of municipal elections in 1982. Taken over from an idea put forward by Ms Monique Pelletier, then Liberal Minister for Family and Women's Affairs, it was the subject of a Bill of Raymond Barre's Government passed at first reading by the National Assembly in 1980. It is therefore on an amendment moved by Ms Giséle Halimi, Socialist Deputy, that mixité was reintroduced in the Bill presented by François Mitterrand's Government in 1982.

64. Constitutional review of statutes in France is an a priori basis. The statute can be referred to the Conseil Constitutionnel (nine members) only by the public authorities (in particular Members of Parliament) before entry into force: i.e. after Parliament has passed it but before promulgation by the President of the Republic. The provisions of the statute declared unconstitutional are annulled and the statute is published in the Journal officiel de la République française without the offending provisions.

65. See his article entitled “Les hommes politiques, les “—sages—” (?) … et les femmes—”, in Droit Social, 1983 p.131.Google Scholar

66. With the considerable exception of Alain Richard, rapporteur of the amendment having given rise to the provision on mixité (and current Minister for Defence in Lionel Jospin's government).

67. Article 3 of the 1958 Constitution provides that “National sovereignty belongs to the people, which shall exercise it through their representatives and by means of referendum. No section of the people nor any individual may arrogate its exercise to itself”.

68. Published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale, First Special Series, No. 39 of 20 Sept. 1995 (supra). See in “Foro Italiano”: I, 3386, 1995, quoted by Pissorusso, Alessandro in his article “Le principe d'égalité dans la doctrine et dans la jurisprudence italiennes” published in Etudes et Documents du Conseil d'Etat No. 48 on the principle of equality (Paris, Documentation Française, 1996).Google Scholar

69. It was in particular popularised by the book of Françoise Gaspard, Claude Servan-Schreiber and Anne Gall Françoise Gaspard, Claude Servan-Schreiber and Anne Gall entitled Au pouvoir citoyennes! Liberté, égalité, parité, published in 1992, Editions du Seuil, Paris.Google Scholar

70. A group of 10 women (all ex-ministers) belonging to various political sensitivities thus published in the French magazine L'Express of 6 June 1996 a “manifesto of the ten for parity” calling for the adoption of a parity system in France, not without criticising “the focal point of our republican culture” as being “centralising and hierarchical, bombastic and arrogant, a teacher, rhetoric and rationalist to the point of being a chimerical abstraction”.

71. A survey done a few years ago by a polling institute on behalf of the National Council of French Women showed that women were almost as likely to stand as non-party independent candidates (See “Parité Infos”, No. 1, Paris, Mar. 1993).Google Scholar

72. See the report of Bernard Roman to the National Assembly, registered on 20 Jan. 2000, on the draft Electoral Act on parity, n° 2103.

73. See William Guéraiche, op. cit., p.76.

74. William Guéraiche, op. cit., p.183.

75. Following the European elections of June 1999.

76. The exception is Strasbourg, where the mayor is Ms Catherine Trautmann, former Minister for Culture and Communication in Lionel Jospin's government. See Bernard Roman's report supra.

77. In 2000, two women are President of a Regional Council (Guadeloupe and Rhône-Alpes), only one woman is a President of a General Council (Calvados) and only one woman is mayor of a town of more than 100,000 inhabitants (Strasbourg) of the 7.6 per cent or so of mayoral posts held by women. But more and more of them occupy positions of senior political responsibility at governmental level, from Simone Veil in 1974 to Martine Aubry and Elisabeth Guigou today; Edith Cresson was the first woman Prime Minister in 1991.

78. See the statistics on “Women in Parliament” on the Council of Europe's website http://stars.coe.fr/equality/tableau2.htm.

79. See Lavau, Janine Mossuz, “La percée des femmes aux élections législatives de 1997”, in Revue Française de Sciences Politiques, No. 3 and 4, 06–08 1997, p.469.Google Scholar

80. See the interesting article by Louis Favoreu in the report of the Council of State for 1996, No. 48, on “equality”, entitled “Principe d'égalité et représentation politique des femmes: la France et les exemples étrangers”, which gives an account of practices and comparative law. It is also very instructive to refer to the impressive list of parties applying a quota system, published by the Socialist Women's International, accessible at: <www.socintwomen.org.uk/quota/quotaeng1.html>.

81. In an opinion on 17 Nov. 1993, the Belgian Council of State considered that the provision on the inadmissibility of lists not respecting the quotas envisaged by the draft reform legislation was unconstitutional. The penalty, it stated, was manifestly disproportionate. But the government went ahead none the less; an ordinary Bill was laid before Parliament and enacted. Thereafter it was not submitted to the Court of Arbitration, which had no opportunity to review it for constitutionality.

82. Act of 24 May 1994 “to promote balanced distribution of men and women on lists of candidates for election”, published in the Moniteur Belge on 1 July 1994.

83. See Verdussen, Marc, “La parité sexuelle sur les listes de candidat(e)s”, in Revue Belge de Droit constitutionnel, 1994, p.33.Google Scholar

84. See the information paper, submitted for the parliamentary delegation for women's rights and equal opportunities between men and women by Odette Casanova, female Deputy. Report of the National Assembly, registered on 12 Jan. 2000, p.12.

85. See , Michel Rosenfeld, “Affirmative Action and Justice”, Yale University Press, 1991.Google Scholar

86. See the contribution by Rousseau, Dominique on parity in France in the Spanish work “Mujery Constitución en España”, Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales, Madrid 2000.Google Scholar

87. The word “promote”, used on a suggestion from the Senate, aims to leave Parliament with the choice of the most suitable formula to achieve this objective.

88. Since 1995, political parties have not been allowed to be financed by private-sector companies but only by their members (for a limited amount) and by the State. The State each year gives them assistance in two portions: one is calculated according to the number of seats obtained by the party in the National Assembly; the other is evaluated according to the number of votes cast for them at the general election (loi organique no. 95–62 of 19 Jan. 1995, J.O. p.1005)

89. Regional elections and elections to the European Parliament take place by the single-ballot list system.

90. The elections by the two-ballot list system are municipal elections and elections to the Senate in districts where proportional representation applies (two thirds of the districts).

91. See for example, Clapié's, Michel article, “Parité constitutionnelle et égalité républicaine, à propos de la loi constitutionnelle n° 99–569 du 8 juillet 1999”, in Revue Administrative No. 314, Mar.–Apr. 2000.Google Scholar

92. See the arguments in the articles published in the review “Le Débat” of May-August 1998 and in the press, in particular by Elisabeth Badinter, against parity, and Sylviane Agazincski, for it. Also see the chronicles published in the report of the Conseil d'Etat of 1996 (supra): “Des impasses de la parité”, by Evelyne Pisier, and “Parité et principe d'égalité”, by Blandine Kriegel.

93. The constitutional revision was passed by a huge majority—741 to 42—by the two Houses of Parliament in Congress at Versailles on 28 June 1999, which proves that members of Parliament were aware of this social demand.

94. CC decision n° 2000–429 DC, AJDA 2000, 653, note Jean-Eric Schoettl on the Act to promote equal access of women and men to electoral office.

95. CC decision n° 91–290 DC, Rec. 50 RFDA 1991, 407, note Genevois.

96. CC decision n° 99–412 DC, RDP 1999, 987, obs. Ferdinand Soucramanien. The Treaty had been referred to the Council by the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister before ratification, for constitutional review under Article 54 of the Constitution.

97. France entered a reservation on Article 27 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 16 Dec. 1966, which provides that “In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language”.

98. In a decision of 14 Jan. 1999 concerning elections to regional Councils, predating the constitutional revision of July of the same year, the Conseil Constitutionnel followed its decision of 1982 and held that the provisions envisaging reserving seats for women on the lists of candidates for the relevant elections were unconstitutional.

99. See Claude Servan-Schreiber's editorial in Parité Info, No. 1, Mar. 1993).

100. See Françoise Gaspard, “Au pouvoir citoyennes!” (supra), p.36. For Françoise Gaspard, the purpose of parity is to call into question the abstract universalism which is a misleading mask, concealing the sovereignty of men in public life. In opposition to abstract universality, she argues, the principle that “the female citizen is not reducible to the male citizen” has to be posited.

101. See Gwenaële Calves: supra n.54.

102. ECHR case Airey v. Ireland, judgment of 9 Oct. 1979, series A No. 32.

103. ECHR case Marckx v. Belgium, judgment of 13 June 1979, series A No. 31.

104. See McCrudden, C., “The Effectiveness of European Equality law: National Mechanism for Enforcing Gender Equality Law in the light of European Requirements” 1993, 13 JO LS 320.Google Scholar

105. Entered into force with regard to France 13 Jan. 1984, published in the Journal Officiel by decree 84–193 of 12 Mar. 1984.

106. See the very interesting report drawn up by David Bodkier in July 1997, during his internship at the French Conseil Constitutionnel, on “la participation des femmes aux élections nationales” (available in the Library of the Court).

107. Parity will apply for the first time to the municipal elections of spring 2001 and then to the general election of spring 2002.

108. For reasons difficult to explain here, this demand for participation is not contradicted by the record abstention rate (almost 70 per cent of the registered voters) at the referendum of 24 Sept. 2000 on the reduction of the presidential term of office from seven to five years, for which there are other specific causes.

109. See in this connection Kerber, Linda K., “the meaning of citizenship” in Journal of American History, Dec. 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar