ABSTRACT
In France, the humanities and social sciences developed in a specific historical context. As the humanities and social sciences began to take shape, it is no accident that the major founding figure of sociology in France and a scholar of international stature, Emile Durkheim, was a man deeply attached to the values of the Republic. The French have difficulty in being obliged to speak, read and write English and this rejection is reinforced by the fact that their subject is the humanities and social sciences in which they have such a rich tradition. The relative stability of the fraction of students in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences who are female suggests that the factors that have led students to be less likely to graduate in these fields have affected male and females similarly. The European Union plays a key role in scientific research, in general, and in research in the humanities and social sciences in particular.
