Nicolas Sarkozy and Women

Janine Mossuz-Lavau (1)

1 CEVIPOF - Centre de recherches politiques de Sciences Po (Sciences Po, CNRS)

This article examines the electoral support that President Nicolas Sarkozy has enjoyed from French women, his appointment of women to positions of responsibility, and the public policies initiated by him that affect women’s lives. In his 2007 election victory, Sarkozy enjoyed similar levels of support among both sexes among most age groups, though older women tended to favor him more than their male peers. In the run-up to the 2012 elections, support for him was generally lower among women than among men. Sarkozy’s term of office opened with a fanfare, trumpeting a government composed equally of men and women. By the end of his five-year term, the proportion of women in government had fallen to scarcely a quarter. Regarding economic inequalities between men and women, despite a number of measures favoring women in the business world, Sarkozy’s five-year term largely failed to deliver the changes promised by him as a candidate in 2007.

Domains: Political science; Gender studies

Janine Mossuz-Lavau. Nicolas Sarkozy and Women. Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, 2012, 16 (3), pp.347 - 356. ⟨10.1080/17409292.2012.675641⟩. ⟨hal-03473903⟩