Women in local politics. Case study of Strasbourg

In 2000, the introduction of parity disrupted the predominantly male political landscape subsequently forcing assemblies to become more feminised. However, this mass influx of laywomen has been largely instrumentalized as soon as the limits of the law's scope of application were exceeded. Twenty years after the first parity constraints were put in place, and at a time when certain institutions such as municipal councils were renewed four times, this dissertation reopens the question of the effects of the parity law on the local political level. For this reason in particular, a strong political area such as Strasbourg was chosen to be at the centre of this investigation. Furthermore, the fact that it is largely led by women provides great interest and enormous relevance to the purpose of this study. The problem is therefore as follows: to what extent does Strasbourg illustrate the strengths and limitations of the parity law regarding women in local politics? Additionally, what have been the effects on the city of such a legislative change? In order to answer the problematic, two research questions were developed. The first concerns the place given to women on Strasbourg's electoral lists. The second observes the post-election period which the law on parity no longer covers, by questioning the mandates allocated to women in councils. To deal with these issues, the methodological choice of the study focused on the use of prosopography. The creation of a database of over 300 individuals made it possible to approach the questions from different angles, whether in relation to age, experience, socio-professional categories or, for mandates, the treatment of salto and the distribution of portfolios. The analysis of the information thus made it possible to illustrate the situations in which Strasbourg stands as an example and those in which it illustrates the theories of the instrumentalisation of women.

test