ABSTRACT
To conclude, there is a contradiction in France between women’s welfare and women’s political presence. I suggest that the strong emphasis on the ‘public good’ has been a potential for social policies supporting working mothers, but the political élite has, throughout history, subordinated women’s civic, social and political rights to national needs. Political institutions represent a separate barrier for the advancement of political equality between women and men. Women are still marginalized politically, and proposals to improve women’s political representation through quotas for women in Parliament have been declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Council (Jenson and Sineau 1994). The result is a growing gap between women’s empowerment in their daily lives as workers and mothers and their lack of political representation, influence and power. During the last elections (in June 1997) there was a growing awareness of women’s under-representation and the number of women representatives in the National Assembly increased for the first time in many years from 6 to 12 per cent. It is, however, too early to say to what extent this is the beginning of a change in French political culture.8
