In the second round of legislative elections on Sunday June 18,2017, 223 women were elected to France’s lower house. With 38.65% of seats in the National Assembly, the election marks a new record for female representation in the French parliament.
It’s good news for equality: Women now hold 223 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, a significant increase over the previous legislature’s 155, which also set a record at the time. These are notable advances since the 33 pioneering female lawmakers of 1945, but they still fall short of true equality in representation.
Catherine Barbaroux, LREM's acting president, hailed the increase of women's share of parliamentary seats."For the first time under the Fifth Republic, the National Assembly will be deeply renewed - more diverse, younger," she said. "But above all, allow me to rejoice, because this is a historic event for the representation of women in the National Assembly."
Female parliamentary representation has increased steadily in France in recent years, with the 2012 elections seeing a record 155 women - 26.9 percent - voted in, up from 18.5 percent in the 2007 elections and 12.3 percent in 2002.
Yet although France has a system in which funding for political parties is restricted if women do not make up at least 49 percent of its parliamentary candidates, most parties still put up more men for election.
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