She talks a lot and gives a lot of advice, but I have no idea what she stands for.

Audrey Reich,
nurse and mother, commenting on
a presentation by Mlle. Royal
STRASBOURG December 20, 2006 (IHT)

SÉGOLÈNE ROYAL SHAKES UP FRANCE'S GENDER POLITICS

STRASBOURG December 26, 2006 (IHT) - To allay voters' concerns about a tepid economy, high unemployment and pervasive globalization, Royal has portrayed herself as the mother protector of the nation. The strategy is more feminine than feminist. Royal seems forever caring, prettified and smiling, as she assures anxious audiences that the country's generous social safety net will hold and that everything will be all right.

Well, that's a nice phony message from a nice phony image. Ségolène Royal, the maternal Prozac candidate.

But the contest for the French presidency this spring is shaping up as one of competing male-female images.

What we find telling are the repeated references and emphases in the press on the image of Mlle. Royal -- a be-all image as the woman, a sort of Gaea downsized to Gallic proportions. We do not question the fact Mlle. Royal is a woman. Nor do we question her personal feminity -- but her gender has become an image, a big image papered over a weak political persona (and this and this and this). We do question the political substance of her gender image.

Her consultants have calculated the burning issue at the 2007 ballot will be bikinitude, voting the sexy candidate, the candidate with style. This, it seems to us, is a gamble that cannot long play. The burning issue at the ballot might be this or this or this or this or this or this or any of hundreds of real problems besetting France -- but not bikinitude.

In politics gender is an attribute, not a message. And if you are a not-fat not-unattractive French woman, your gender is decoration.

The article goes on to recount the inglorious French record of gender equality, opportunity, and representation.

In addition to the low representation of women in the National Assembly [12.6%], only 11.6 percent of France's more than 36,000 mayors are women. Only 3 of Paris's 20 deputy mayors are women [15%]. Royal is the only woman among 26 regional presidents [4%].

A law passed in 2000 that requires each of the parties to present equal numbers of men and women on their election slates in regional and many local elections is often disregarded. The two main parties prefer to lose a huge share of their funding, which is paid by the state, rather than promote women for the National Assembly.

"We are still trapped in an 'old boys' club' party system that favors the veterans and punishes newcomers," said Mariette Sineau, a political scientist. "That's why the National Assembly is full of old, overprivileged white men."

The buzz is that France is ready for a woman president. How lucky for Ségo that she happens to be running. But will France just vote in a woman for the thrill of it? Here's some of that French deep-think:

"Seduction is very important in French politics," said Catherine Trautmann, the former Socialist mayor of Strasbourg who now is a member of the European Parliament. "François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac certainly knew how to seduce. When a woman is too serious, she cannot be convincing."

Oh, yes, seduction. Very important. That ought to advance the cause of women back into the 18th century. Here are some other views:

"I believe that the French are completely ready to elect a woman" as president, [defense minister Michèle] Alliot-Marie* said this month. She added, however, that there was only one thing that she and Royal had in common: They both are women.

"She's developed the strategy of the queen bee, and other women do not exist for her," [Roselyne Bachelot, a former ministre de l'Environnement, de l'Écologie et du Développement durable,] said. "She is not a 'sister' figure. And those little skirts and jackets — she's trying to give the impression that's she's almost a little girl. And then whenever she's attacked, she says, 'You're attacking me because I am a woman.'"

... "She has no hesitation saying how perfect she is," said [Françoise de Panafieu, a l'UMP deputy mayor of Paris], a lifelong politician who has six grandchildren and stopped dying her silver hair years ago. "She should be more modest."

At a sports complex outside Strasbourg where Ms. Royal made an appearance on Wednesday evening, none of the mothers had much sympathy for her.

"She talks a lot and gives a lot of advice but I have no idea what she stands for," said Audrey Reich, a 31-year-old nurse and mother. "She's the public relations personality of the moment."

Lucile Combet, 33, a construction foreman and mother of two, agreed. "She's more show than substance," she said.

* The former dimmest bulb in the dark Chirac marquee™. The position is currently held by Philippe Douste-Blazy, the foreign minister.

PFFT (What is this?): "I am woman" politicking 4 | Rayonnement français 0