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Changing Patterns of Politicization and Partisanship Among Women in France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Sylvia B. Bashevkin
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Extract

During the past decade, political researchers have devoted growing attention to women's political involvement and, to a somewhat lesser extent, their political attitudes in Western cultures. This interest has been a response in part to contemporary feminist movements and, more specifically, to the increasingly visible role of women as social activists, partisan elites and governmental decision makers in Western European and North American society.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , January 1985 , pp. 75 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

1 Major studies in this area include Kirkpatrick, Jeane J., Political Woman (New York: Basic Books, 1974)Google Scholar; Currell, Melville E., Political Woman (London: Croom Helm, 1974)Google Scholar; Jaquette, Jane S., ed., Women in Politics (New York: Wiley, 1974)Google Scholar; and Stacey, Margaret and Price, Marion, Women, Power, and Politics (London: Tavistock, 1981).Google Scholar

2 See, for example, Mossuz-Lavau, Janine and Sineau, Mariette, Les Femmes françaises en 1978 (Paris: CORDES, 1980)Google Scholar; Charzat, Gisèle, Les Françaises, sont-elles des citoyennes? (Paris: Denoël/Gonthier, 1972)Google Scholar; Brimo, Albert, Les Femmes françaises face au pouvoir politique (Paris: Editions Montchrestien, 1975)Google Scholar; Chariot, Monica, ‘Women in Politics in France’, in Penniman, Howard R., ed., The French National Assembly Elections of 1978 (Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 1980), pp. 171–91Google Scholar; and Cameron, David R., ‘Stability and Change in Patterns of French Partisanship’, Public Opinion Quarterly, XXXVI (1972), 19–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Longitudinal comparisons in this area are based upon older survey data reported in Dogan, Mattei and Narbonne, Jacques, Les Françaises face à la politique (Paris: A. Colin, 1955)Google Scholar; and Dogan, Mattei. ‘Le comportement électoral des femmes dans les pays de l'Europe occidentale’, in La Condition sociale de la femme (Brussels: Editions de l'Institute de sociologie Solvay, 1956).Google Scholar

4 For a consideration of clerical and spousal influences, see Mossuz-Lavau, and Sineau, , Les Femmes françaises en 1978Google Scholar, Chaps 3 and 4; Brimo, , Les Femmes françaises, pp. 75–9Google Scholar; Charlot, , ‘Women in Politics in France’, pp. 174–80Google Scholar; and Charzat, , Les Françaises, pp. 42–9, 53–5.Google Scholar

5 Examples include Chariot, , ‘Women in Politics in France’Google Scholar, Tables 6.1 and 6.3; and Inglehart, Margaret R., ‘Political Interest in West European Women’, Comparative Political Studies, XIV (1981), Table 5.Google Scholar

6 The most common indicators employed in this literature are political interest (including frequency of political discussion) and voter turnout. See Inglehart, , ‘Political Interest in West European Women’Google Scholar; Mossuz-Lavau, and Sineau, , Les Femmes françaises en 1978Google Scholar, Chap. 1; Charlot, , ‘Women in Politics in France’, pp. 172–4Google Scholar; and Charzat, , Les Françaises, Chaps 1 and 2.Google Scholar

7 The major data sources employed in this study are firstly, the 1958 French Election Study, directed by Georges Dupeux, François Goguel, Jean Stoetzel and Jean Touchard, which was gathered from a cross-sectional sample (N = 1,650, weighted to 1,870 cases) during three survey waves: pre-referendum, post-referendum and post-election. Approximately two-thirds of the sample was interviewed at each point in time. Secondly, data from the 1970 European Communities Study, directed by Ronald Inglehart and Jacques-René Rabier, are introduced. This survey included 2,046 French cases gathered from a national cross-section of respondents age 16 and over. Thirdly, Euro-barometres #6 (October/November, 1976) and #10 (October/November 1978), conducted by Jacques-René Rabier and Ronald Inglehart, are used. The former sampled 1,355 French respondents drawn from a stratified national quota sample. Since the rural population was under-represented in this sample, rural cases were duplicated in the ICPSR dataset (used in this analysis). The French sample in Euro-barometre #10 included 1,038 French respondents weighted to a total of 1,194 cases. These datasets were made available by the York University Institute for Behavioural Research, in co-operation with the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. Neither the original investigators nor the IBR not the ICPSR bears responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here.

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11 Langlois, Claude, ‘Les effectifs des congrégations féminines au XIXe siècle’Google Scholar, as quoted in Evans, , The Feminists, p. 126.Google Scholar

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13 See Sowerwine, Charles, Les Femmes et le socialisme (Paris: Presses de la FNSP, 1978).Google Scholar

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15 See Dogan, and Narbonne, , Les Françaises face à la politique, pp. 13–14Google Scholar. It should be noted that the 1944 Assembly vote on female enfranchisement was overwhelmingly in favour of suffrage.

16 For a more detailed treatment of this period, see Jenson, Jane, ‘Women on the Agenda: Mobilization for Change in France’, paper presented at Conference of Europeanists (Washington, D.C., 1982), pp. 7–21.Google Scholar

17 Bourricard, François, ‘The Right in France since 1945’, Comparative Politics, X (1977), p. 13Google Scholar, For a more general treatment of social change in France, see Ardagh, John, The New French Revolution (New York: Harper and Row, 1968).Google Scholar

18 See McHale, Vincent, ‘Religion and Electoral Politics in France’, Canadian Journal of Political Science, 11 (1969), 292–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 Bourricard, , ‘The Right in France’, p. 23.Google Scholar

20 Cahm, Eric, Politics and Society in Contemporary France (London: George G. Harrap, 1972)Google Scholar. On the radicalization of Catholic Action groups, see Dulong, Renaud, ‘Christian Militants on the French Left’, West European Politics, V (1982), 55–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 According to Juillard, ‘between 1962 and 1968, the number of working women increased by 6·89 percent; the number of employed males by 5·58 percent… more women in France work than in any other Western European country.’ See Juillard, Joelle Rutherford, ‘Women in France’, in Iglitzin, Lynne B. and Ross, Ruth, eds, Women in the World (Santa Barbara: Clio Press, 1976), p. 118Google Scholar. On the important linkage between female employment and education, on the one hand, and exposure to leftist influences, on the other, see Cameron, , ‘Stability and Change’, p. 29.Google Scholar

22 Legislative reforms are discussed in Juillard, , ‘Women in France’, pp. 116 ff.Google Scholar

23 Jenson, Jane, ‘The French Communist Party and Feminism’, in Miliband, Ralph and Saville, John, eds, The Socialist Register 1980 (London: Merlin Press, 1980). p. 125. Emphasis in original.Google Scholar

24 For a thorough review of these processes, see Jenson, ‘The French Communist Party and Feminism’ as well as Jenson, Jane ‘The New Politics: Women and the Parties of the Left’, paper presented at Conference of Europeanists (Washington, D.C., 1980), pp. 32–44.Google Scholar

25 By way of contrast, female membership in the PS and PSU reached approximately 25 per cent in the early 1970s. See Pierce, Roy, French Politics and Political Institutions (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), p. 155Google Scholar; Charzat, , Les Françaises, pp. 58–9Google Scholar; Johnson, R. W., The Long March of the French Left (London: Macmillan, 1981)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Viens, Yann, ‘Femmes, politique, Parti Communiste Français’, in La Condition féminine (Paris: Editions Sociales, 1978). pp. 347–82Google Scholar; and Hauss, Charles, The New Left in France (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978).Google Scholar

26 Jenson, , ‘The French Communist Party’, p. 144.Google Scholar

27 Northcutt, Wayne and Flaitz, Jeffra, ‘Women and Politics in Contemporary France’, Contemporary French Civilization, VII (1983), p. 187Google Scholar. The major policy positions of Choisir were presented in Halimi, Gisèle, Le Programme Commun des Femmes (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1978).Google Scholar

28 On the rejuvenation of the Socialist left following 1971, see Safran, William, The French Polity (New York: David McKay, 1977), pp. 86–91Google Scholar; and Machin, Howard and Wright, Vincent, ‘The French Left Under the Fifth Republic’, Comparative Politics, X (1977), 35–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 Weitz, Margaret Collins, ‘The Status of Women in France Today: A Reassessment’, Contemporary French Civilization, VI (1981–1982), p. 213Google Scholar. For the PS critique of Giscard's policies, see Northcutt, and Flaitz, , ‘Women and Polities’Google Scholar. One prominent feminist group which endorsed the Socialists in 1981 was Psychanalyse et Politique, founded in 1968.

30 On political instability during the Fourth Republic, see Williams, Philip M., Crisis and Compromise: Politics in the Fourth Republic (London: Longmans, 1964)Google Scholar; Williams, Philip M., Politics in Post-War France (London: Longmans, 1958)Google Scholar; and MacRae, Duncan Jr., Parliament, Parties, and Society in France, 1946–1958 (New York: St Martin's, 1967)Google Scholar. For an overview of French constitutional crises, see Pierce, , French Politics and Political Institutions, Chaps 1–3, 5Google Scholar; and Ambler, John S., The Government and Politics of France (Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1971), Chaps 1, 10.Google Scholar

31 Ehrmann, Henry W., Politics in France (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, 1976), p. 211Google Scholar. On the traumatic implications of 1968, see also Pierce, , French Politics and Political Institutions, pp. 129–40Google Scholar; and Noonan, Lowell G., France: The Politics of Continuity in Change (New York: Holt, Rinehart, 1970).Google Scholar

32 On the development of contemporary French feminism, see Marks, Elaine and de Courtivron, Isabelle, ‘Introductions’ to New French Feminisms: An Anthology (Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980), pp. 28–38Google Scholar; Albistur, and Armogathe, , Hisioire du féminisme français, pp. 477–73Google Scholar; Rabaut, Jean, Historie des féminismes français (Paris: Editions Stock, 1978), 333–80Google Scholar; de Pisan, Annie and Tristan, Anne, Hisioires du MLF (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1977)Google Scholar; and Guadilla, Naty Garcia, Libération des femmes: le MLF (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1981).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33 This hypothesis is drawn from Lancelot, Alain, L'Abstemionnisme électoral en France (Paris: A. Colin, 1968), p. 179.Google Scholar

34 Mossuz-Lavau, Janine and Sineau, Mariette, ‘Sociologie de l'abstention dans huit bureaux de vote parisiens’, Revue française de science politique, XVIII (1978), 73–101Google Scholar. The levels of non-voting among women and men born before 1900 were 32 and 18 per cent, respectively.

35 Dupeux, Georges, Girard, Alain and Stoetzel, Jean, ‘Une enquête par sondage auprès des électeurs’, in Dogan, Mattei et al. , eds, Le référendum de septembre el les élections de novembre 1958 (Paris: A. Colin, 1960), pp. 119–93.Google Scholar

36 A report on one such experiment is presented in Grawitz, Madelaine, ‘Le comportement féminin à Lyon, d'après une expérience d'urnes separées’, in Goguel, François et al. , eds, Le référendum du 8 Janvier 1961 (Paris: A. Colin, 1962), pp. 205–9.Google Scholar

37 The first wave of the 1958 survey is employed because it included the largest number of female respondents (n = 606), compared with 395 in the second and 522 in the third waves.

38 Cameron, , ‘Stability and Change’, Table 3Google Scholar. In 1968. non-response among men and women aged 21–9 was 17·4 per cent.

39 Zeldin, , France, 1848–1945, pp. 292–3, 343–62.Google Scholar

40 Annuaire of Catholic Action in France, 1950, as quoted in Fogarty, , Christian Democracy in Western Europe, pp. 281–2.Google Scholar

41 Bosworth, William, Catholicism and Crisis in Modern France (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1962), p. 142.Google Scholar

42 Dogan, and Narbonne, , Les Françaises face à la politiqueGoogle Scholar. The French study was part of a larger four-nation project commissioned in 1953 by UNESCO, at the request of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. See Pickles, Dorothy, ‘The Political Role of Women’, International Social Science Bulletin, V (1953), pp. 75–104Google Scholar; and Duverger, Maurice, The Political Role of Women (Paris: UNESCO, 1955).Google Scholar

43 Rémond, René, ‘Les catholiques et les élections’Google Scholar, in Dogan, et al. , eds, Le Référendum de septembre et les élections de novembre 1958, pp. 99–116.Google Scholar

44 See Goguel, François, ‘Christian Democracy in France’, in Einaudi, Mario and Goguel, François, eds, Christian Democracy in Italy and France (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1952), pp. 109–224Google Scholar; and Irving, R. E. M., Christian Democracy in France (London: Allen and Unwin, 1973).Google Scholar

45 Fogarty, , Christian Democracy in Western Europe, p. 336.Google Scholar

46 Data on female candidacies are drawn from Dogan, and Narbonne, , Les Françaises face à la politique, Chap. 9.Google Scholar

47 According to Dogan and Narbonne, the proportion of female candidates in 1946 and 1951 was highest in the PCF (19·7 and 25 per cent, respectively), followed by the SFIO (12·7 and 15 per cent, respectively). Approximately two-thirds of female legislators who were elected during the Fourth Republic were Communists.

48 Bacot, Paul, Les Dirigeants du Parti Socialiste (Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 1979), Chap. 4Google Scholar; and Jenson, , ‘The French Communist Party’.Google Scholar

49 These 1958 percentages were calculated by summing the total number of respondents who identified with the MRP in each survey wave, and then determining the proportion of each total which was composed of women. Older survey data are drawn from Dogan, and Narbonne, , Les Françoises face à la politique, as well as Sondages, XIV (1952).Google Scholar

50 Among females residing in the highly confessional West of France, 39·5 per cent identified with the MRP, while among those living in the Northeast region – which included the heavily christianized area of Alsace-Lorraine – 21·4 per cent identified with the party. These figures coincide with older regional data reported in Bosworth, Catholicism and Crisis in Modern France. Data on the relationship between attitudes toward the écoles libres and female partisanship, not presented in tabular form, show that 61·5 per cent of women who were in complete agreement with state funding were centre or right partisans, compared with only 22·2 per cent of those who were not at all in agreement. The level of leftist partisanship increased systematically, from 8·2 to 44·4 per cent, with opposition to state aid.

51 See Cameron, , ‘Stability and Change’.Google Scholar

52 Bourricard, , ‘The Right in France Since 1954’, p. 13.Google Scholar

53 These figures were adapted from Cameron, ‘Stability and Change’, Table 3.

54 See Pitkin, Hannah Fenichel, The Concept of Representation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967).Google Scholar

55 For a critique of this older literature, see Bashevkin, Sylvia B., ‘Women and Change: A Comparative Study of Political Attitudes in France, Canada, and the United States’ (doctoral dissertation, York University, 1981).Google Scholar

56 See Bashevkin, Sylvia B., ‘Social Change and Political Partisanship: The Development of Women's Attitudes in Quebec, 1965–1979’, Comparative Political Studies, XVI (1983), 147–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Similar approaches to American and English Canadian public opinion are developed in my ‘Social Feminism and the Study of American Public Opinion’, International Journal of Women's Studies, VII (1984)Google Scholar, and The Last Frontier: Women and Party Politics in English Canada (forthcoming), respectively.