FactualThe Hemicycle has nine fewer female deputies than in 2017, due to a less equal presidential majority than five years ago, and a very male frontist group.
For the first time since 1988, the number of women sent to the National Assembly is down. Only 215 women were elected in the legislative elections (i.e. 37.3%), compared to 224 (38.8%) in 2017. This is the third and sharpest decline in parity in the National Assembly under the Ve republic, after 1968 – when we went from eleven to eight deputies – and 1988 (from 34 to 33 elected).
This decline is all the more surprising given that there have never been so many women running for the legislative elections: 44.16% of the 6,291 candidates were female candidates.
Less effort within the presidential majority
To understand why the Assembly is more masculine in 2022 than in 2017, it is interesting to go into the details of each political group.
The presidential majority of 2022 is much less equal than in 2017. That year, La République en Marche (LRM) presented 232 men and 236 women. In the end, 164 deputies and 144 LRM deputies took their place in the Assembly, which made it the most equal group: including the MoDem, the majority was made up of 46.6% women, more than the left – 40% for the Socialist Party, 41.2% for La France insoumise, 20% for the French Communist Party.
In 2022, the presidential coalition was less equal with 40.2% of female deputies, a drop of six points compared to 2017. As this is the largest group in the Hemicycle, this mechanically lowers the representation women at the Palais Bourbon. However, it is much less substantial than after the previous elections: we therefore go from 163 women elected in the presidential majority in 2017 to 99 in 2022. Very precisely, this number will be increased to 104 women, if the twelve ministers who emerge victorious from the elections legislative (3 women and 9 men) leave their seat to their substitutes (4 men and 8 women) as planned. This would make a total of 220 deputies sitting in the Assembly.
The other factor that explains this decline is the massive arrival of deputies from the National Rally (RN) – eleven times more than five years ago – whose parity is not the strong point. The far-right party had only eight deputies in 2017, two of whom were elected, which was not enough to pull down the representation of women. But they will now be 89 to sit for the RN during this sixteenth legislature. However, the group only has 37% women, which contributes to reducing the number of elected women in total.
Fewer and fewer women at each turn
Another noteworthy observation: between the nomination stage and the election in the second round, women lose ground. Since 2012, political parties have been approaching parity for the candidates they nominate (40% female candidates in 2012, 42.4% in 2017, and 44.2% in 2022), with some disparities depending on the political families: in 2022, the New Popular Ecological and Social Union, Together! and the RN presented about as many female candidates as men. For Les Républicains (LR) and the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), women were in the minority (38%).
But from the first round, the proportion of women among the qualified falls – up to 10 percentage points lost at LR-UDI. This decline is repeated after the second round, which suggests that the candidates were nominated in hard-to-win constituencies, while the male cadres of these parties reserve the most favorable configurations; a practice that had already been observed in 2017. All parties combined, women represent 43.1% of those qualified in the second round, but only 37% of those elected.
Note, an exception at LR-UDI, where women represent 26.7% of qualified and 28.1% of elected officials, which shows that they did a little better than their male counterparts in the second round. . Data that does not prevent LR from being historically the least equal party in the National Assembly (only 24.1% elected in 2017, 30% in 2022). A situation that is costing him dearly: between 2017 and 2022, LR paid an average of 1.8 million euros per year in fines to continue to present the overwhelming majority of its male candidates.