Measuring the Impact of Parity Policy at the National Level: A Sexed Analysis of Legislative Candidates in France, 2002-2012

In France, the constitution was amended in 1999 and the electoral law in 2000 to mandate that political parties nominate 50 percent female candidates for all elections. The new law stipulates that political parties present equal numbers of male and female candidates across all electoral districts for the National Assembly, with a financial penalty for non-compliance. 16 years after the introduction of gender quotas, this paper closely examines the impact of the French parity law by proposing an analysis on the evolution of the profiles of French representatives and candidates in the National Assembly from 2002 to 2012. Thus, in this policy sector, policy impact is measured in terms of descriptive representation. Our analysis is based on data from election results as well as data from the Ministry of the Interior on each candidate and their alternates. In this paper, we investigate the evolution of these profiles of men and women candidates in relation to their party affiliation. While we focus mainly on inequalities between the sexes, we also investigate inequities by other socio-political factors. We also examine the main explanatory factors behind the socio-economic biases in legislative representation with multivariate regression analysis.