In the hybrid presidential-parliamentary system in France, the division between executive and legislative office is exemplified by the ‘incompatibility rule’ whereby any Deputy appointed to a cabinet post has to resign from parliament. Behind this apparently presidential division of powers, the barrier is relatively permeable but until very recently it was more common for women to start off in government and then be ‘parachuted’ into parliament than to use the legislature as a trampoline into executive roles. Indeed for most of the Fifth Republic, the proportion of women in government has been higher than in parliament. Since gender parity measures from 1999 boosted the number of women Deputies, this dynamic has begun to change. Women are obtaining more prestigious portfolios, they are staying in post longer and are more likely to have legislative experience.
Within the National Assembly, the parliamentary Women’s Delegation has helped to improve Deputies’ access to key posts and their ability to pursue women’s legislative agendas. There are also instances of Delegation members obtaining executive positions (in ministerial cabinets, other executive organisms, or on short-term missions) as a result of the expertise acquired/demonstrated in the Delegation. Such cases raise questions about executive recruitment – is the Delegation opening up an alternative career path? – and about policy impact – does their involvement in a body designed to mainstream equality enable them to inject a measure of substantive representation into the executive?
This paper will identify cases of legislative-executive transfer over the past 15 years. It will ask if prior Women’s Delegation involvement enhances policy input at the executive level and if it confers greater legitimacy thereby possibly improving retention of women in the executive.
