Science at UM [S05-ep12]: Local Elections, Liberty, Equality, Gender Parity?
This week on *Science at UM*, 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. A program broadcast every Wednesday on Divergence.
Last Sunday, just over half of Montpellier’s eligible voters went to the polls to elect their next mayor. Thirteen slates were on the ballot; seven were led by men and six by women.
On each of these lists, there are as many female candidates as male candidates running for seats on the future city council. Normal. Except that what seems normal—or even invisible—to many of us was a novelty for everyone living in municipalities with fewer than 1,000 residents—70% of French municipalities, no less—who were presented with gender-balanced lists for the first time under the law of May 21, 2025. These municipalities, which were not subject to gender-balanced requirements, had until now 37.6% women on their councils, compared to 48.5% in more populous municipalities.
We are not talking here about a final achievement—far from it—but rather about the ongoing process of increasing the number of women in politics, a process that began, in legal terms, more than 25 years ago, on June 6, 2000, to be exact.
Since then, each government has taken a small step forward, and it’s safe to say that some would have taken a giant step backward had the foundations of this movement—aimed at “promoting,” though not yet guaranteeing, “equal access for women and men to electoral mandates and elected office”—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 moved forward at the same pace? And where do we stand today? We’re 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 tested by the workings of politics.
At UM Science, you’ve got the program—let’s get started!
Co-production: Divergence FM / University of Montpellier
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Lucie Lecherbonnier / Aline Périault
Production: Alice Rollet
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