Paris (AFP)

A total of 21.32% of the head of the list of municipalities with more than 1,000 inhabitants in the municipal elections in March are women, against only 15.46% in 2014, according to an AFP count. A significant advance even if the parity still seems distant.

"A 6% increase is not negligible," welcomes political scientist Mariette Sineau, who works on gender and politics. "

Two days before the international day for women's rights, the teacher at Science Po is also pleased to see women at the top of the list in large cities such as Paris or Marseille, which bodes well for the future, according to her.

She recalls, however, "the path of the fighter" that represents for women the fact of winning a nomination, a fortiori a top of the list.

According to her, the limitation of the cumulation of mandates voted in 2014 could benefit women by ending the reigns of the "great feudal lords" who monopolized national and local mandates.

Since the law of May 17, 2013, already in force during the 2014 municipal elections, an obligation of parity is applied, respecting a male / female alternation, in the lists of all the municipalities of 1,000 inhabitants and more.

This parity obligation was extended in November by the "commitment and proximity" law to municipalities of 500 to 1,000 inhabitants, but this reform will not be applied before 2026.

The 2013 parity rule also applies to the election of deputies to municipal councils. However, the choice upstream of the list leaders does not fall under any rule, except that specific to political organizations.

As a result, the presence of women in municipal executives often remains secondary. At the end of 2019, they were only 16.9% to be mayors and 29% 1st deputies against 40% municipal councilors, according to the administrative site "public life".

Hearings before the Assembly also highlighted the persistence of a gendered distribution of delegations, women often taking care of early childhood or school affairs while finances or town planning remain mainly in the hands of men.

To "allow a real sharing of power", a bill to strengthen gender parity at the local level was tabled by the majority at the end of March in the Assembly. She advocates a generalization of list ballots to all the municipalities and suggests that the mayor and the first deputy must be of different sexes.

© 2020 AFP