by Jessica Reed
From this Salon article about Segolene Royal:
It's unsettling to imagine that the French -- who didn't give women the right to vote until 1944 -- could elect a female president before the United States.
I don't think it is that unsettling, and fail to see why the law of 1944 can possibly shed any light on our current political context. After all, France is one of the first European contry to have inforced the "parity law" and its gender quotas, which mainly aimed to create a gender-balanced electoral system (ironically, those quotas are rarely respected, as most major parties prefer to pay fines rather than support female candidates).
Thoughts?
Picture via amazeman's flickr account.
