French elections: record number of female MPs not enough, says feminists - The Guardian

A record 155 female MPs were voted into France's national assembly as the Socialist party swept to power with an absolute majority in Sunday's general election.

François Hollande appointed women to half the 34 cabinet posts after he became president last month, and more than a quarter of the 577-seat parliament is now made up of women. But French feminist groups said it was still a long way from the parity enshrined in law and pledged by Hollande.

"We can hardly rejoice when we're such a long way from the 50% that is the legal requirement," said Thalia Breton, of Osez le Féminisme (Dare Feminism). "We don't want excuses from the political parties, we want them to start organising parity within their organisations. It's frustrating because things are changing far, far too slowly and French politics remains masculine and macho."

About 37% of the Socialists' MPs are women, and 14% of MPs with the former president Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP. The number of women in the assembly rose on Sunday even though the proportion of female candidates fielded for election fell, from 41.6% in 2007 to 40%.

The result lifts France from 69th to 34th in the world for the proportion of female MPs, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organisation of parliaments. Britain now lies joint 55th.

Réjane Sénac, a specialist in gender equality at Sciences-Po and the National Centre for Scientific Research, said there was still no egalité in the French executive. "With 73% of MPs still men, this result has confirmed that parity is a problem that needs to be dealt with. If there had not been the 'pink wave' with the Socialists winning so many seats, we wouldn't even have 27% women," he said.

Sénac called on Hollande to bar political parties from receiving public funds unless they implemented a policy of equality.

Among the women joining parliament is Marion Maréchal Le Pen, niece of the Front National leader, Marine Le Pen. At 22 she becomes the youngest MP to sit in the assembly since 1791.

Another woman to enter the French parliament is Axelle Lemaire, who lives in London. The Socialist candidate won the Northern Europe constituency, one of France's 11 newly created overseas seats, covering Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and the Baltics. The constituency has been nicknamed Paris-on-Thames, with London now France's sixth biggest city by the number of French residents.

Hollande's former partner Ségolène Royal lost her battle for the seat of La Rochelle to a dissident Socialist candidate, Olivier Falorni. The French press said Royal, who stood unsuccessfully against Sarkozy in 2007, had suffered a "slow descent into hell" after her attempts to become president, head of the Socialist party and an MP all failed.

Last year in the wake of sexual assault charges – later dropped – against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then a Socialist presidential hopeful, several female MPs launched a protest against alleged sexist behaviour and the "macho atmosphere" in the national assembly. The then sports minister, Chantal Jouanno, said she avoided wearing skirts to parliament because of inappropriate comments from male colleagues.

The then president of the assembly said at the time that the house was "no different from all other sectors of society".