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‘Jupiter is back’: gender in the 2017 French presidential campaign

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French Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

Since 1958 and the beginning of the Fifth Republic, the French presidency has been constructed and consolidated as a masculine institution. Furthermore, all presidential elections can be considered as a key moment for politicising issues relating to sex and gender. The 2017 presidential campaign is more specific. Since 2000, the mechanisms designed to ensure gender equality have been strengthened, such that they are now an unavoidable norm in political competition. In a context of dramatic political change, the hierarchy of political issues is affected. This article looks back over François Hollande’s 5-year term from this perspective, before drawing on an analysis of campaign materials and press coverage. The small proportion of women candidates and the marginalisation of gender issues in the programmes testify to the fragile nature of ‘egalitarian good will.’ Gender and sexuality did, however, offer a means for other power relations to be expressed, in relation to different conceptions of nationalism and both class and race relations.

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Notes

  1. In the media, articles mentioning this possibility were few and far between and immediately discarded it due to the ‘lightweight’ nature of her candidacy https://www.challenges.fr/election-presidentielle-2017/le-remplacement-de-fillon-ce-plan-b-qui-annonce-la-defaite-de-la-droite_451652). The only woman whose name was mentioned at one stage was Valérie Pécresse, but articles focused mainly on ‘serious’ candidates instead, namely men of a certain age who had already held both elected office and party responsibilities.

  2. To give one example among many others, Sylvia Pinel received the worst score from the Parisien journalists after the second primary debate: http://www.leparisien.fr/elections/presidentielle/primaires/deuxieme-debat-de-la-primaire-a-gauche-nous-avons-note-les-candidats-15-01-2017-6571221.php.

  3. http://www.lemonde.fr/big-browser/article/2017/02/03/la-perception-de-penelope-fillon-apres-une-semaine-de-scandale-de-complice-a-victime_5074447_4832693.html.

  4. http://www.liberation.fr/france/2017/02/07/macron-gay-la-fabrique-d-une-rumeur_1546935.

  5. In December 2014, the celebrity gossip magazine Closer revealed that Florian Philippot was gay. In the campaign, he returned to this forced ‘coming out’ at a sign of his ‘modernity’: http://www.francetvinfo.fr/politique/marine-le-pen/video-florian-philippot-aborde-le-sujet-de-son-homosexualite_1887691.html.

  6. http://www.ipsos.fr/decrypter-societe/2017-04-23-1er-tour-presidentielle-2017-comprendre-vote-francais.

    http://www.ipsos.fr/decrypter-societe/2017-05-07-2nd-tour-presidentielle-2017-comprendre-vote-francais.

  7. On December 2, 2016, E. at the Women’s Forum for Economy and Society, E. Macron declared: ‘I’m feminist’.

  8. During his first rally at Bercy on March 19, 2017, Benoît Hamon declared: ‘I’d like to say this to the little girls, to the young women, listening to me in this room or on a screen far from here: I can’t wait for you to be here, in my place. But you’ll have to forgive me for pushing back another 5 years the day when France has a woman as President of the Republic. I’ll be a feminist president’.

  9. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s programme borrowed from historical materialist feminism, presenting the [numerical] ‘figures of patriarchy’.

  10. http://www.lemonde.fr/election-presidentielle-2017/article/2017/01/25/francois-fillon-denonce-la-misogynie-des-revelations-du-canard-enchaine_5068735_4854003.html.

  11. Between the two rounds of the presidential election, there was a call from feminists to vote for E. Macron: http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/laurence-rossignol/feministes-nous-ne-voulons-pas-du-front-national-nous-votons-e_a_22056449/.

  12. https://www.fillon2017.fr/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/PROGRAMME_FINAL_APERCU.pdf.

  13. ‘Réveillez-vous’ [Wake up], a call to woman from E. Macron, January 28, 2017 on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/EmmanuelMacron/videos/1906579276241316/.

  14. For a detailed summary of the different candidates’ programmes, see the series of articles written for Slate.fr by Aude Lorriaux.

  15. http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2017/04/17/qu-est-ce-que-sens-commun-l-association-engagee-dans-la-campagne-de-francois-fillon_5112648_4355770.html.

  16. J.-L. Mélenchon’s programme outlined LGBTQ rights and women’s rights in two separate pamphlets.

    https://avenirencommun.fr/livret-droits-nouveaux-lgbti/; https://avenirencommun.fr/livret-de-legalite/.

  17. http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/presidentielle-2017/20170216.OBS5392/emmanuel-macron-hollande-etait-un-bon-peintre.html.

  18. https://www.challenges.fr/election-presidentielle-2017/interview-exclusive-d-emmanuel-macron-je-ne-crois-pas-au-president-normal_432886.

  19. https://www.lesechos.fr/politique-societe/emmanuel-macron-president/0211761751962-emmanuel-macron-qui-sont-les-quinze-de-sa-garde-rapprochee-2062222.php.

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Correspondence to Catherine Achin.

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This article was prepared as part of the LabEx Tepsis Project (ANR-11-LABX-067) and was translated by Lucy Garnier.

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Achin, C., Lévêque, S. ‘Jupiter is back’: gender in the 2017 French presidential campaign. Fr Polit 15, 279–289 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41253-017-0037-6

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