It all depends on what you count. If it includes as many men as women, the new government of Elisabeth Borne, appointed on Monday, does not however respect parity “real”, according to the High Council for Equality between Women and Men (HCE), an independent advisory body. Indeed, women remain under-represented in “key positions in public decision-making”, notes the HCE in a press release published on Tuesday – although it welcomes the appointment of Elisabeth Borne as Prime Minister. However, according to the HCE, “Behind the purely quantitative parity is also the parity of responsibility”.
Since the reshuffle, among the ministers are eleven men and six women; among the delegate ministers, nine men and six women; among the Secretaries of State, one man and nine women. The two ministers and the secretary of state beaten in the legislative elections – Brigitte Bourguignon for health, Amélie de Montchalin for ecological transition and Justine Benin for the sea – have been replaced by three men: respectively François Braun, Christophe Béchu and Hervé Berville .
More subtly, the HCE observes that the distribution of positions obeys “to gender biases and sex stereotypes: four men are at the head of the five sovereign ministries, seven women at the head of the nine social ministries – health, culture, family, childhood…”
“What matters is the mission”
Olivier Véran, the government spokesman, saw things differently when he left the Council of Ministers on Monday. “Do not look at the positioning of the various ministerial portfolios (…) : what counts is the mission which occupies you and that for which you have been appointed to the government, and no mission is less important than another. So yes, the government is equal”he argued.
He also recalled that in the Assembly, women occupy both the presidency and five of the six vice-presidencies, as well as the presidency of the majority parliamentary group. For the HCE, the election of Yaël Braun-Pivet to the perch should not, however, hide “a decline in the place of women” at the Palais-Bourbon, for the first time since 1988. They occupy “now barely more than a third of the seats”notes the HCE.
The legislative elections brought to the Assembly only 215 women for 577 seats, or 37.26% of deputies, against 39% after the legislative elections of 2017. Five years ago, feminization was twelve points above 2012, three times more than in 2002, when women represented barely 12% of elected officials. As in 2017, it is the group Les Républicains which is the least balanced, with 18 women out of 61 elected (29.5%). The New People’s Ecological and Social Union has 43.6% female MPs. The presidential majority has 40.4% women and the RN, 37.1%.
“Gendered Portfolios”
Only two of the eight standing committees are chaired by women: the Committee for Cultural Affairs and Education and the Committee for Social Affairs, “gendered portfolios”for the HCE.
The High Council for Equality between Women and Men also points to political cabinets, “white areas of parity”encore “overwhelmingly male” with approximately 20% women, according to its report on sexism in 2022. The HCE must submit a report on parity and equality in the national political sphere in the fall.