Let’s be clear: if this is not enforced by law, equality will never be implemented in electoral mandates. When this law went into effect in 2000, many people let out cries of outrage, expressing anger that it would take a law to acknowledge what was so obvious. No, this was not clear to everyone, and two women, Roselyne Bachelot and Gisèle Halimi, were the first to make trouble by publishing, in December 1996, a report on equality in political life proposing proactive measures in favor of quotas.
“Quota”, the word may be surprising, at that time we were more used to using it for dairy products or cow heads, but it was still effective. Since it was mandatory, women were found to fill the positions that belonged to them. This is what Edith Gueugneau, former PS MP for Saône-et-Loire, explained so well in our survey: “When I was a member of parliament, people came to support me because there was an equality rule.” Without this, we would naturally offer the position to a man.
Therefore, we should be happy that the equality law finally applies to cities with a population of less than 1,000 in the March elections. Of course this is not easy, but it will force us to be more creative, encourage men to take on more household responsibilities, think about alternative ways of raising children, and seek out women socially. It’s just a matter of habit. For a long time – and perhaps still today – women have tended to underestimate their skills while men have not hesitated to exaggerate theirs. They are afraid of not being able to carry out these tasks because they were considered childish in their youth, especially afraid of not being able to manage professional and personal responsibilities (especially caring for children). Luckily this is no longer a problem today, because it is (almost) no longer a subject: equality already exists.
