UM atUM [S05-ep12]: Local Elections, Liberty, Equality, Gender Parity?
This week on *AUM science*, Aurélia Troupel, a researcher at the Center for Political and Social Studies, traces in an in-depth interview the long road toward gender parity in local assemblies, from the 1990s to the current municipal elections. The program airs every Wednesday on the radio station Divergence.
Last Sunday, slightly more than one in two Montpellier residents of voting age went to the polls to elect their next mayor. Thirteen slates were on the ballot; of these, seven were led by a man and six by a woman.
On each of these lists, there are as many female candidates as male candidates running for seats on the future city council. That’s normal. Except that what seems normal—or even goes unnoticed—to many of us was a first for everyone living in municipalities with fewer than 1,000 residents—which, after all, account for 70% of French municipalities—who were presented with gender-balanced slates for the first time under the law of May 21, 2025. These municipalities, which were not subject to gender parity requirements, had until now had 37.6% women on their councils, compared to 48.5% in more populous municipalities.
We will not be talking here about a culmination—far from it—but rather about the continuation of a process of feminization in political life that began, from a legal standpoint, more than 25 years ago, on June 6, 2000, to be exact.
Since then, each government has taken its own small step forward, and it’s a safe bet that some would have taken a big step backward if the foundations of this movement—aimed at “promoting,” though not yet guaranteeing, “equal access for women and men to electoral offices and elected positions”—had not been enshrined in the Constitution during Lionel Jospin’s term. So what have been the stages of this march toward gender parity in politics? What are the democratic tools involved? Have the various local assemblies progressed at the same pace? And where do we stand today? We’ll be asking all these questions of our guest today, Aurélia Troupel, a researcher at Cepel who contributed to the book *Sociology of Local Elected Officials*, published in 2024 by De Boeck Supérieur, in which she devotes a chapter to the fragile mechanics of gender parity as it is put to the test by the workings of politics.
AtUM , you’ve got the schedule—let’s get started!
Co-production: Divergence FM / University of Montpellier
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Lucie Lecherbonnier / Aline Périault
Director: Alice Rollet
Check out theUM podcasts,UM available on your favorite platform (Spotify, Deezer, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, etc.).