Eleonore Lepinard | University of Lausanne (original) (raw)

Published Papers by Eleonore Lepinard

French Politics, 2020

This article assesses the pre-adoption, adoption, implementation and impact of party parity penal... more This article assesses the pre-adoption, adoption, implementation and impact of party parity penalties established in 2002 to promote gender equality in the National Assembly. The analysis argues that while the penalties were implemented and increased over the years and had some success in enhancing women’s numerical representation, from 12.3% of all MPs in 2002 to 38.7% in 2017, rather than being “more than meets the eye,” the parity sanctions were actually far less. The limited scope and authority of the parity penalties and the gender-biased norms of key gatekeepers and political elites in the political parties and the high courts have circumscribed the extent of the progress in women’s numerical representation and the quality of that representation; women MPs in the National Assembly still remain marginalized in a variety of ways in comparison with their male counterparts. Thus, the outcome of the party parity sanctions, in GEPP terms, is “gender accommodation” over “transformation.”

Law and Social Inquiry, 2020

Over the past three decades, the legal profession has experienced globalization, the rise of mega... more Over the past three decades, the legal profession has experienced globalization, the rise of mega-law firms, and intensified competition. These transformations have been associated with declining career perspectives, the hyper-specialization of legal work, and increased levels of stress. We argue that the concept of alienation offers valuable insights into these changes by providing an original analysis of the objective and subjective experiences of early career lawyers at work. We elaborate a multidimensional typology that covers the content and retributions of legal work. By categorizing experiences of alienation along these two axes, we identify four ideal-types of alienation: powerlessness, purposelessness, time deprivation, and unfairness. Based on qualitative studies carried out in France and Switzerland, we illustrate how young lawyers differentially experience each type of alienation, according to gender, status, and firm size. We conclude by suggesting how these factors combine to produce long-terms effects, such as the high female attrition rates observed in the Swiss and French legal professions.

As a social movement strategy, intersectionality is used to foster the inclusion and representati... more As a social movement strategy, intersectionality is used to foster the inclusion and representation of minority groups. In this article, we examine how Québécois women's organizations use intersectionality as a tool to include immigrant and Native women. We argue that intersectionality can entail different practices with potentially conflicting goals. We conclude that social movement scholars would benefit from paying attention to intersectionality and to how it is practiced by activists and organizations. Indeed, a focus on intersectionality sheds light on the tensions inherent in the processes by which organizations construct collective identities, formulate political demands, manage internal conflicts and build alliances.

Introduction to the mini-symposium

Once a country allergic to any type of preferential treatment or quota measure for women,France h... more Once a country allergic to any type of preferential treatment or quota measure for women,France has become a country that applies gender quotas to regulate women’s presence and representation in politics, the business sector, public bodies, public administration, and even some civil society organizations. While research has concentrated on the adoption of electoral gender quotas in many countries and their international diffusion, few studies focus on explaining the successful diffusion of gender quotas from politics to other domains in the same country. This paper proposes to fill this gap by studying the particularly puzzling case of a country that at one point strongly opposed the adoption of gender quotas in politics, but, in less than a decade, transformed into one of the few countries applying gender quotas
across several policy domains. This paper argues that the legal entrenchment of the parity principle, the institutionalization of parity in several successive women’s policy agencies, and key players in these newly created agencies are mainly responsible for this unexpected development. The diffusion of gender quotas in France thus offers an illuminating example of under which conditions women’s policy agencies can act autonomously to diffuse and impose a new tool for gender equality.

Intersectionality has been adopted as the preferred term to refer to and to analyze multiple axes... more Intersectionality has been adopted as the preferred term to refer to and to analyze multiple axes of oppression in feminist theory. However, less research examines if this term, and the political analyses it carries, has been adopted by women's rights organizations in various contexts and to what effect. drawing on interviews with activists working in a variety of women's rights organizations in France and Canada, i show that intersec-tionality is only one of the repertoires that a women's rights organization might use to analyze the social experience and the political interests of women situated at the intersection of several axes of domination. i propose a typology of four repertoires that activists use to reflect on intersectionality and inclusiveness. drawing on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the interview data, i show that hegemonic repertoires about racial or religious identity in one national context shape the way activists and organizations understand intersectionality and its challenges. The identity of organizations, as well as their main function (advocacy or providing service), also shape their understanding of intersectional issues.

Analysis of intersectional debates in French feminist theory and politics

Religion in general, and Islam in particular, has become one of the main focal points of policy-m... more Religion in general, and Islam in particular, has become one of the main focal points of policy-making and constitutional politics in many Western liberal states. This article proposes to examine the legal and political dynamics behind new regulations targeting individual religious practices of Muslims. Although one could presuppose that church– state relations or the understanding of secularism is the main factor accounting for either accommodation or prohibition of Muslim religious practices, I make the case that the policy frame used to conceptualize the integration of immigrants in each national context is a more significant influence on how a liberal state approaches the legal regulation of individual practices such as veiling. However, this influence must be assessed carefully since it may have different effects on the different institutional actors in charge of regulating religion, such as the Courts and the legislature. To assess these hypotheses I compare two countries, France and Canada, which are solid examples of two contrasting national policy frames for the integration of immigrants.

T he now well-developed literature on gender quotas focuses mainly on two areas: the causal mecha... more T he now well-developed literature on gender quotas focuses mainly on two areas: the causal mechanisms that can be advanced to explain the adoption, diffusion, and effectiveness of political gender quotas worldwide

Veils, niqabs, forced and arranged marriages, polygamy, and Sharia rules concerning women all hav... more Veils, niqabs, forced and arranged marriages, polygamy, and Sharia rules concerning women all have been the object of intense public scrutiny and legal regulations in many Western countries during the last decade. 1 With a particular intensity in Europe, the feminist concern about gender inequalities in minority cultures has become closely intertwined with national anxieties about the boundaries of the political community, its heterogeneity, and the necessity to integrate groups perceived as embodying different cultural and religious values. Critics of multiculturalism argue for restrictive regulations vis-` a-vis religious and ethnic minorities in the name of women's rights. Nationwide debates questioning the compatibility of Islam with Western culture and the prerequisites for the inclusion of Muslim citizens and migrants in the national body politic, have repeatedly focused on gendered symbols and gender relations. At a time when a return to a civic assimilationist concept of the nation is growing throughout Europe 2 (often implying a promotion of cultural homogeneity rather than diversity) the opposition of gender equality and minority cultures has immediate political currency and often has legal effects as well. Gender equality has suddenly gained a new visibility and status. In each country where these debates have emerged, gender equality is presented as a national achievement, a cultural specificity and a new norm, which determines who will be able to assimilate and what practices are or are not politically desirable. These public debates have also stirred up considerable theoretical discussion, especially among feminists, since the publication of Susan Moller Okin's important essay " Is Multicul-turalism Bad for Women? " in which she argued that granting specific rights to minorities is detrimental to women's individual rights because these rights generally favor a traditional, hence patriarchal, interpretation of a group's culture. 3 Many feminist scholars have criticized her essay, arguing among other things that the framing she proposed conflates culture and religion, de-historicizes cultural practices, obscures more pressing concerns about women's socioeconomic status, fuels processes of racialization and ethnicization of minority cultures , diverts attention from gender inequalities within the majority culture, and introduces relationships of power between women along racial lines. 4 However, the tension between women's rights and minorities' rights identified by Okin continues to generate theoretical discussions as it challenges the liberal account of multiculturalism, democratic theory, as well as feminist theory. Indeed, Okin's emphasis on the need to limit minorities' rights in order to protect women's rights has been criticized by liberal multiculturalists since it interferes with groups' right to sustain their culture, whereas liberal feminists have denounced multiculturalists' emphasis on minorities' rights at the expense of women's protection and their right to equality. 5 In this paper, I take a tentative step towards displacing this dilemma by proposing different theoretical and political perspectives, as well as proposing resolutions of these issues. Rather than focusing on the dilemma itself, I explore the definition of autonomy that informs both these theoretical discussions and the public debates that stem from concrete cases, and suggest that an exploration of what autonomy has meant for feminism and of how it can be

Panorama des revues américaines sur le genre dans la section "revue des revues" des Cahiers du genre

In Canada, women's rights organizations have successfully mobilized the law to foster gender equa... more In Canada, women's rights organizations have successfully mobilized the law to foster gender equality. In doing so, they have been constrained by legal understandings of equality and discrimination, which have shaped their strategies to seek justice. In return, their mobilization, mainly through litigation, has contributed to craft or to alter legal categories (such as " substantive equality, " " women, " " sexual harassment, " etc.), which in turn sustain their identities and their interests. However, claims made in the name of gender equality raise two issues: They tend to overlook the intersection of gender with other grounds of discrimination such as religion or race/ethnicity; and they tend to conflict with multiculturalism, a value enshrined in Canadian law. The recent decision taken by the province of Ontario to ban religious arbitration for family matters offers an illuminating case study of this tension between gender equality and religious rights in the Canadian context. This article analyzes women's rights activists' legal understandings of gender equality and religious/ethnic discrimination to explain how these representations have influenced women's mobilization against religious arbitration in Ontario. Bringing together the insights developed by critical legal studies about intersectionality and the study of legal mobilization, this articles explores through a concrete example the tension between feminism and multiculturalism.

Le genre constitue désormais un des concepts couramment utilisés pour l’analyse des politiques pu... more Le genre constitue désormais un des concepts couramment utilisés pour l’analyse des politiques publiques. Cependant, la richesse croissante de ce corpus de recherches et la variété des approches mobilisées invitent à prendre un recul, historique et analytique, pour tenter de discerner d’éventuelles différences dans la façon dont le concept de genre est utilisé dans ces travaux, en France et ailleurs. L’introduction du concept de genre est venue depuis les années 1980 compliquer l’opposition princeps entre recherches « sur les femmes » et recherches féministes qui avait préalablement structuré ce champ de recherche. Toutefois, le concept de genre est susceptible de différentes définitions et joue dans ces travaux des rôles analytiques différents. Nous proposons donc un essai de typologie des différents usages du genre qui vise à souligner la nécessité d’expliciter le statut du genre dans l’analyse. Il ne s’agit pas de prôner une unique façon de procéder : rendre explicite le statut du genre dans l’analyse doit plutôt permettre d’assurer une cohérence entre la méthodologie employée et les prémisses théoriques.

Parity appears as a critical moment in French feminism’s history, a moment in which old dilemmas ... more Parity appears as a critical moment in French feminism’s history, a moment in which old dilemmas have been enlivened, tensions have been heightened, and conflicts have arisen. It is therefore a moment worth exploring, for the subject of feminism itself has been called into question, and the answer parity has given is an ambiguous one. Trapped in the equality/difference dilemma, parity advocates have conceptualized gender difference in a way that does not allow thinking about multiple differences.
To explore the reasons, both historical and theoretical, that can account for such a turn of events in French feminism’s history, one needs first to look back to the history of second‐wave feminism in France to investigate how divergent understandings of gender difference have shaped the contemporary conceptualization of gender in parity politics. Indeed, I argue that the definition of women elaborated to legitimize the parity claim finds its roots in previous French feminist discourses and struggles around the concept women. Second, the context of the French Republican ideology has also imposed a strong constraint on parity claims. Parity activists have had to zigzag strategically between different meanings of difference and equality to make their claims compatible with the Republic’s core doctrines and therefore acceptable to power holders. In this perspective, parity also represents the last page to date in the conflictual history of encounter between French feminists and the Republic.

This article provides an alternative approach to the arguments of "critical mass," whose tenets a... more This article provides an alternative approach to the arguments of "critical mass," whose tenets assume that policies fostering women's rights would arise from an increase in women's political representation. Instead, the article argues that the cultural repertoires that are used to justify women's higher numerical presence also matter. Indeed, different repertoires-such as claiming women's inclusion into politics in the name of women's interests or in the name of their difference-have different political outcomes. This case study of the French sex-parity laws, which ensures a 50-percent quota of women in politics, explores the connection between the rationales to legitimize the laws and their implementation at the local level. This provides for, first, an investigation of how the requirement to make the parity claim compatible with French cultural repertoires on citizenship and sovereignty has led parity advocates to define sexual difference as universal. Then, drawing on interviews with local politicians, it shows how this rationale underlining sexual difference has failed to define gender relationships as political and, thus, to promote gender equality in local public policies.

Les lois sur la parité constituent un terrain privilégié pour analyser comment le droit produit d... more Les lois sur la parité constituent un terrain privilégié pour analyser comment le droit produit des normes sociales de genre. À partir de l’analyse des débats parlementaires et des conflits d’interprétation juridique sur la notion d’égalité des sexes, cet article explore les normes de genre sous-jacentes aux différentes expertises juridiques mobilisées par les parlementaires. Il montre comment ces différentes expertises s’appuient sur des représentations normatives du genre opposées et préconisent des traitements politiques de ces rapports sociaux radicalement différents puisqu’il s’agit, d’un côté, de légitimer et reproduire leur caractère inégalitaire et, de l’autre, au contraire, de les transformer. Il conclut en posant la question du rôle du droit dans la transformation des rapports sociaux et la conception du pouvoir qui en résulte.

Si la question de la différence a historiquement été centrale au projet féministe, comme politiqu... more Si la question de la différence a historiquement été centrale au projet féministe, comme politique et comme théorie, elle est aujourd’hui insuffisante pour penser des rapports de genre qui apparaissent, à la lumière de la critique postcoloniale et des politiques de l’identité, traversés par d’autres rapports de pouvoir. Toutefois, cette critique semble avoir des difficultés à émerger en France où l’histoire du mouvement, en particulier la place qu’y a occupé la question de la lutte des classes, le lien qu’il a entretenu entre théorie et politique, et l’histoire du postcolonialisme — ou plutôt son absence — ont participé à tenir la question de l’articulation entre genre, « race » et ethnicité à l’écart des revendications et de la théorie féministe. Cette configuration historique, sociale et théorique a engendré un certain malaise dans le concept, c’est-à-dire une difficulté à critiquer les acquis théoriques du féminisme et à déconstruire la catégorie « femmes », autrement dit le sujet même du féminisme.

Books by Eleonore Lepinard

Feminist Trouble. Insterctional politics in postsecular times, 2020

For more than two decades Islamic veils, niqabs, and burkinis have been the object of intense pub... more For more than two decades Islamic veils, niqabs, and burkinis have been the object of intense public scrutiny and legal regulations in many Western countries, especially in Europe, and feminists have been actively engaged on both sides of the debates: defending ardently strict prohibitions to ensure Muslim women’s emancipation, or, by contrast, promoting accommodation in the name of women’s religious agency and a more inclusive feminist movement. These recent developments have unfolded in a context of rising right-wing populism in Europe and have fueled “femonationalism,” that is, the instrumentalization of women’s rights for xenophobic agendas. This book explores this contemporary troubled context for feminism, its current divisions, and its future. It investigates how these changes have transformed contemporary feminist movements, intersectionality politics, and the feminist collective subject, and how feminists have been enrolled in the femonationalist project or, conversely, have resisted it in two contexts: France and Quebec. It provides new empirical data on contemporary feminist activists, as well as a critical normative argument about the subject and future of feminism. It makes a contribution to intersectionality theory by reflecting on the dynamics of convergence and difference between race and religion. At the normative level, the book provides an original addition to vivid debates in feminist political theory and philosophy on the subject of feminism. It argues that feminism is better understood not as centered around an identity—women— but around what it calls a feminist ethic of responsibility, which foregrounds a pragmatist moral approach to the feminist project.

Intersectionality in Feminist and Queer Movements: Confronting Privileges, 2019

Elizabeth Evans and Eléonore Lépinard, University of Lausanne, Switzerland Series: Routledge Adva... more Elizabeth Evans and Eléonore Lépinard, University of Lausanne, Switzerland Series: Routledge Advances in Feminist Studies and Intersectionality The volume sets out three key ways in which intersectionality operates within feminist and queer movements: it is used as a collective identity, as a strategy for forming coalitions, and as a repertoire for inclusivity. The case studies presented in this book then evaluate the extent to which some, or all, of these types of intersectional activism are used to confront manifestations of privilege. Drawing upon a wide range of cases from across time and space, this volume explores the difficulties with which activists often grapple when it comes to translating the desire for intersectionality into a praxis which confronts privilege.

French Politics, 2020

Law and Social Inquiry, 2020

Introduction to the mini-symposium

Analysis of intersectional debates in French feminist theory and politics

Panorama des revues américaines sur le genre dans la section "revue des revues" des Cahiers du genre

Feminist Trouble. Insterctional politics in postsecular times, 2020

Intersectionality in Feminist and Queer Movements: Confronting Privileges, 2019

Gender quotas are a controversial policy measure. However, over the past twenty years they have b... more Gender quotas are a controversial policy measure. However, over the past twenty years they have been widely adopted around the world and especially in Europe. They are now used in politics, corporate boards, state and local public administration and even in civil society organizations. This book explores this unprecedented phenomenon, providing a unique comparative perspective on gender quotas' adoption across thirteen European countries. It also studies resistance to gender quotas by political parties and supreme courts. Providing up-to-date comprehensive data on gender quotas regulations, Transforming Gender Citizenship proposes a typology of countries, from those which have embraced gender quotas as a new way to promote gender equality in all spheres of social life, to those who have consistently refused gender quotas as a tool for gender equality. Reflecting on divergences and commonalities across Europe, the authors analyze how gender quotas may transform dominant conception of citizenship and gender equality.

On a cru en France que l’idée de parité, permettrait d’en finir avec l’exclusion politique des fe... more On a cru en France que l’idée de parité, permettrait d’en finir avec l’exclusion politique des femmes. Pourtant, l’égalité peine toujours à se traduire dans les faits. En analysant les termes qui ont successivement été utilisés pour définir et légitimer la parité, l’ouvrage démontre comment cette conceptualisation de l’égalité des sexes a abouti à la subversion des objectifs radicaux des débuts. Conjuguant la science politique, les études sur le genre et la sociologie du droit, l’auteure analyse les facteurs qui ont transformé la revendication paritaire des arènes internationales à l’espace public militant et médiatique français . Ce livre permet de comprendre les défis posés au modèle républicain par la parité, et par là même d’amorcer une réflexion sur ceux que soulèvent les autres minorités.

Intersectionality in Feminist and Queer Movements. Confronting Privileges, 2019

This is the first pages of the introduction to the volume "Intersectionality in Feminist and Quee... more This is the first pages of the introduction to the volume "Intersectionality in Feminist and Queer Movements. Confronting Privileges". This introduction provides a typology of how intersectionality may be used by social movements organizations, as well as an analysis of different types of privileges that intersectionality may help debunk within movements.

This chapter looks at two decades of legal experiments with gender quotas in France, from their r... more This chapter looks at two decades of legal experiments with gender quotas in France, from their rejection to their systematic adoption in many spheres of social and economic life. It describes parity promoters' attempt to transform parity in a new legal principle to define gender equality, and their repeated failure to do so in the face of staunch opposition from France's higher judicial courts.

This is the introduction to a comparative volume looking at gender quotas in 13 European Countrie... more This is the introduction to a comparative volume looking at gender quotas in 13 European Countries in politics, economics and public administration. We explore the process of diffusion of quotas in contemporary Europe and chart new research questions addressed in the volume

The goal of this chapter is to examine the activities and impact of the major institutions, polic... more The goal of this chapter is to examine the activities and impact of the major institutions, policies, actors and issues that have emerged around the pursuit of gender equality in France under the Fifth Republic. At the center of the search for gender-based equality has been the omni presence of the universal republican model that structures French political life. Research on French gender and politics issues shows that the universal republican approach has been an important impediment to the development of effective gender equality policy and broad-based women’s movement mobilization. Given the centrality of the republican universal model for gender equality politics, this chapter provides an in-depth analysis of the myths and realities of the model, its impact and mutations in relation to the politics of gender equality in France throughout the life of the Fifth Republic.

Since the end of the 1990s, the politics of difference, be it gender difference or ethnic/racial/... more Since the end of the 1990s, the politics of difference, be it gender difference or ethnic/racial/religious difference, has witnessed dramatic changes in France. These changes are both the result of social actors' mobilization around new identities -such as blackness asserted by the Conseil Représentatif des Associations Noires (CRAN, Representative council of Black associations) -and of the institutional responses designed by the State to address old and new dilemmas of social inclusion. Indeed, in both policy domains of gender and multiculturalism, the crisis of the French republican model has been increasingly obvious. As early as the mid-1990s, the parity movement asking for gender balance in political representation, called into question the doctrine of abstract universalism enshrined in the Constitution. Simultaneously, the failures of the integration model that used to define public policies towards migrants and visible minorities have become more and more patent. Although affirmative action measures still trigger heated public controversies, and although public institutions still use territory as a proxy for ethnicity in order to avoid collecting ethnic statistics, the dominant terms of the debate have shifted. The 2005 uprisings in the banlieues have certainly contributed to that shift. The outburst of violence at the outskirts of Paris reminded the rest of French society that the integration model favored by the elites and state institutions did not meet its goals. Many observers linked the

For several decades European countries have developed public policies that focus on incorporating... more For several decades European countries have developed public policies that focus on incorporating immigrants into host societies. Governments and bureaucrats have designed specifi c policies to recognize, integrate, and assimilate foreign cultures and ethnic otherness. Since their inception, in most European countries, policies designed to include immigrant minorities have centred on ethnic identities and national origins rather than on religious identities. Th e British Race Relations Act of  provided a legal framework that organized the integration of immigrants from former colonies along racial lines (Favell ; Bleich ). In France, although the civic conception of citizenship meant that all immigrants could become citizens, policy makers based estimations of the likelihood to integrate on immigrants' national origin and, implicitly, ethnic and cultural origins (Hargreaves ; Favell ). For a long time, in Germany, the rule of the jus sanguinis implied that Turkish Gastarbeiter (temporary workers) were not citizens; therefore, citizenship categories also coincided with ethnic boundaries (Brubaker ; Joppke ). Hence, for over three decades, the various politics of inclusion implemented in many European countries primarily used citizenship status (immigrant, alien, or citizens) and ethnic identities as their main policy categories.

Cette recherche conduite par une équipe du CERI (Sciences Po) entend rompre avec l’usage globalis... more Cette recherche conduite par une équipe du CERI (Sciences Po) entend rompre avec l’usage globalisant et instrumental de la comparaison, en proposant de désagréger ce bloc monolithique auquel le « modèle anglo-saxon » est trop souvent renvoyé, en même temps que de désintriquer les débats relatifs, d’une part à l’égalité des chances dans une optique de redistribution, et d’autre part aux identités culturelles dans une optique de reconnaissance. L’examen de quelques secteurs bien délimités a été privilégiée : celui de l’égalité dans les chances d’accès à l’enseignement supérieur sélectif et au logement social aux États-Unis et en France ; celui de l’égalité de reconnaissance des droits religieux au Canada, au Royaume-Uni et en France, analysée à travers les dispositifs « d’accommodement » (ou leur refus). En choisissant trois pays anglo-saxons comparés de manière systématique avec le cas français, ce projet de recherche propose donc une approche inédite de la comparaison.

Jusqu'à maintenant, les recherches sur les quotas se sont intéressées principalement à deux quest... more Jusqu'à maintenant, les recherches sur les quotas se sont intéressées principalement à deux questions1 : celle de savoir quelles sont les variables susceptibles d'expliquer l'adoption, la diffusion et l'effectivité des politiques de quotas de genre dans différents pays2 ; et celle d'évaluer les bénéfices, 1. Une version antérieure de ce chapitre intitulée « For women only ? Gender quotas and intersectionality in France » a été publiée dans Politics & Gender, vol. 9, no 3, 2013. 2. Parmi les nombreuses contributions sur ce thème voir Linda Baldez, « Elected bodies : the gender quota law for legislative candidates in

Drawing on the richness of these thirteen cases, our European comparison sheds new light on three... more Drawing on the richness of these thirteen cases, our European comparison sheds new light on three important phenomena reshaping women's political inclusion in Europe that we explore in this concluding chapter. First, our comparative investigation helps us delineate patterns of both resistance and adoption among countries as the domains of quotas spread, bringing new insights on the transformative potential of gender quotas in different contexts. In particular, our case studies show in which contexts gender quotas can contribute to erode the public/private divide and reconfigure women's citizenship and conceptions of gender equality, and in which contexts their scope is likely to remain more limited. In order to tease out these differences and explore these dynamic patterns of quota reform, still in the making for most of our case studies, we identify four ideal-type scenarios for gender quota adoption, rejection, and diffusion, suggesting different degrees of transformative ...

This book thus proposes a timely assessment of the adoption and diffusion of gender quotas in thr... more This book thus proposes a timely assessment of the adoption and diffusion of gender quotas in three main domains (elections, administrative bodies, corporate boards) and in thirteen European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. This selection covers eight of the ten EU-member countries implementing legislated electoral quotas. It represents a wide range of situations with respect to women's historical and actual participation to representative politics, and, beyond the realm of politics, with respect to the degree and nature of gender inequalities in each country. Indeed, our broad comparison aims at surveying the main gender regimes found in Europe and questioning the extent to which they have facilitated the adoption and spread of gender quotas and/or been affected by it. The purpose of this large comparison is to allow for a broader view of the “gender quota revolution”: its genesis, its o...

Mouvements, 2019

Le concept d’intersectionnalité, élaboré il y a plus de trois décennies par des théoriciennes fém... more Le concept d’intersectionnalité, élaboré il y a plus de trois décennies par des théoriciennes féministes de couleur pour désigner et appréhender les processus d’imbrication et de co-construction de différents rapports de pouvoir – en particulier la classe, la race et le genre – connaît certes aujourd’hui une reconnaissance académique, tardive mais importante, dans les sciences sociales françaises, comme en témoignent les nombreuses publications et les traductions qui se revendiquent du concept[4]. Cependant, une fraction du monde universitaire, limitée mais importante par les positions institutionnelles qu’elle occupe, contribue à décrédibiliser scientifiquement cette approche en l’assimilant à une forme intellectuelle de communautarisme qui essentialiserait les identités. Pourquoi tant d’énergie dépensée à vouloir dévaloriser une approche qui a prouvé son utilité aussi bien scientifique que politique ? Comment analyser les résistances suscitées par la notion d’intersectionnalité et les discours déformants dont elle fait l’objet ?

L’intersectionnalite est devenue en quelques annees un concept central aussi bien en sciences soc... more L’intersectionnalite est devenue en quelques annees un concept central aussi bien en sciences sociales qu’au sein des luttes sociales, en particulier feministes. Forgee pour penser l’imbrication des rapports de domination, l’intersectionnalite constitue aujourd’hui un champ d’etudes et d’experimentations theoriques foisonnant. Pour la premiere fois en France, des universitaires abordent ses multiples dimensions - epistemologiques, theoriques et politiques -, et les recherches recentes qu’elle a permis d’ouvrir dans des espaces aussi differents que la France, l’Amerique latine ou l’Europe de l’Est. Que peut nous offrir cette notion pour penser le genre, la theorie feministe et les mobilisations sociales ? Comment contribuer a promouvoir un usage de l’intersectionnalite qui renforce son potentiel critique et « insurge », plutot que fige sur des identites ? Cet ouvrage temoigne a partir d’exemples de la force d’un tel outil lorsqu’il s’agit d’eclairer des processus sociaux et politique...

This Critical Perspectives series aims at exploring intersectional politics and political practic... more This Critical Perspectives series aims at exploring intersectional politics and political practices outside of the U.S. context and contributing to the growing body of literature that operationalizes the concept. Indeed, the genealogy of intersectionality as a concept must be firmly rooted in the American context, though it has traveled extensively. With travel comes the need for reflexivity and contextualization. The authors in this series use their awareness of this American genealogy to fashion new intersectional lenses to capture the dynamics of the politics of belonging (Yuval-Davis 2012) and inclusion in various national and transnational contexts. Power relations of class, gender, race, ethnicity, and religion are being refashioned as a result of such developments as global financial crises fueling cuts in social spending, rising antiimmigrant sentiment in European countries combined with Islamophobia, and the rise to power of many left-wing parties in Latin America alongside...

Intersectionality in Feminist and Queer Movements, 2019

As a project to challenge privileges, intersectionality elicits resistances, which help to explai... more As a project to challenge privileges, intersectionality elicits resistances, which help to explain why, despite numerous calls to adopt intersectionality in feminist organizing, researchers also observe a lack of implementation of intersectionality. This chapter argues that this resistance is primarily located in whiteness, a privilege directly challenged by feminist intersectional discourses and practices. It proposes to document feminist whiteness – i.e. how feminism is made white – in the context of French feminist organizations. It first identifies discursive repertoires used by white feminists to secure the centrality of feminist whiteness in the movement. Drawing on whiteness studies showing how whiteness is produced and performed through emotional and moral disposition, it analyses how feminist whiteness also consists in marking non-white feminists as ‘others’, through two types or moral attitudes: patronizing solicitude and indignant anger. It concludes by calling attention of scholars of intersectionality in social movements to the study of resistance to intersectionality, taking into account how whiteness, among other sites of privilege, produce it.

The parity reform is unquestionably a victory for French feminists. However, its legacy for the F... more The parity reform is unquestionably a victory for French feminists. However, its legacy for the French feminist movement is ambivalent. Indeed, whereas the legal and conceptual vocabulary of discriminations (on the grounds of gender but also ethnic origin, religion disability etc.) is taking roots in the French political landscape, organizations advocating for parity remain focused on a “gender-first” type of analysis. Indeed, intersectionality is an unknown concept for French feminists and femocrats as well as many feminist organizations have not questioned the absolute primacy they give to gender over other types of oppression that women may be vulnerable to. This paper explores why it is so. In particular I focus on the conceptual and political legacy of the parity movement for French feminism and its approach to intersectionality today. I argue that parity has prevented the emergence of an intersectional approach and that the issue of differences among women remains too marginal in the most prominent organizations of the French feminist movement.

Revue française de science politique, 2014

Pour contribuer a expliquer les decisions juridiques accommodant ou prohibant le port de signes r... more Pour contribuer a expliquer les decisions juridiques accommodant ou prohibant le port de signes religieux minoritaires tels que le voile islamique, cet article propose de s’interesser au role joue par les traditions d’ecriture juridique dans deux contextes nationaux contrastes : la France et le Canada. Il analyse la technique juridique en ce qu’elle permet de legitimer en droit des presupposes axiologiques plus ou moins favorables aux pratiques religieuses minoritaires. En comparant les styles d’ecriture du juge canadien et du juge francais, on met ainsi en lumiere comment le premier, grâce a des techniques juridiques specifiques, inclut le point de vue minoritaire dans ses decisions, alors que le second tend a favoriser le point de vue majoritaire et a delegitimer les demandes faites au nom de la moralite religieuse minoritaire, en particulier musulmane.

Ethnicities, 2014

Religion in general, and Islam in particular, has become one of the main focal points of policy-m... more Religion in general, and Islam in particular, has become one of the main focal points of policy-making and constitutional politics in many Western liberal states. This article proposes to examine the legal and political dynamics behind new regulations targeting individual religious practices of Muslims. Although one could presuppose that church–state relations or the understanding of secularism is the main factor accounting for either accommodation or prohibition of Muslim religious practices, I make the case that the policy frame used to conceptualize the integration of immigrants in each national context is a more significant influence on how a liberal state approaches the legal regulation of individual practices such as veiling. However, this influence must be assessed carefully since it may have different effects on the different institutional actors in charge of regulating religion, such as the Courts and the legislature. To assess these hypotheses I compare two countries, Fran...

Constellations, 2011

Veils, niqabs, forced and arranged marriages, polygamy, and Sharia rules concerning women all hav... more Veils, niqabs, forced and arranged marriages, polygamy, and Sharia rules concerning women all have been the object of intense public scrutiny and legal regulations in many Western countries during the last decade. 1 With a particular intensity in Europe, the feminist concern about gender inequalities in minority cultures has become closely intertwined with national anxieties about the boundaries of the political community, its heterogeneity, and the necessity to integrate groups perceived as embodying different cultural and religious values. Critics of multiculturalism argue for restrictive regulations vis-à-vis religious and ethnic minorities in the name of women's rights. Nationwide debates questioning the compatibility of Islam with Western culture and the prerequisites for the inclusion of Muslim citizens and migrants in the national body politic, have repeatedly focused on gendered symbols and gender relations. At a time when a return to a civic assimilationist concept of the nation is growing throughout Europe 2 (often implying a promotion of cultural homogeneity rather than diversity) the opposition of gender equality and minority cultures has immediate political currency and often has legal effects as well. Gender equality has suddenly gained a new visibility and status. In each country where these debates have emerged, gender equality is presented as a national achievement, a cultural specificity and a new norm, which determines who will be able to assimilate and what practices are or are not politically desirable. These public debates have also stirred up considerable theoretical discussion, especially among feminists, since the publication of Susan Moller Okin's important essay "Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?" in which she argued that granting specific rights to minorities is detrimental to women's individual rights because these rights generally favor a traditional, hence patriarchal, interpretation of a group's culture. 3 Many feminist scholars have criticized her essay, arguing among other things that the framing she proposed conflates culture and religion, de-historicizes cultural practices, obscures more pressing concerns about women's socioeconomic status, fuels processes of racialization and ethnicization of minority cultures, diverts attention from gender inequalities within the majority culture, and introduces relationships of power between women along racial lines. 4 However, the tension between women's rights and minorities' rights identified by Okin continues to generate theoretical discussions as it challenges the liberal account of multiculturalism, democratic theory, as well as feminist theory. Indeed, Okin's emphasis on the need to limit minorities' rights in order to protect women's rights has been criticized by liberal multiculturalists since it interferes with groups' right to sustain their culture, whereas liberal feminists have denounced multiculturalists' emphasis on minorities' rights at the expense of women's protection and their right to equality. 5 In this paper, I take a tentative step towards displacing this dilemma by proposing different theoretical and political perspectives, as well as proposing resolutions of these issues. Rather than focusing on the dilemma itself, I explore the definition of autonomy that informs both these theoretical discussions and the public debates that stem from concrete cases, and suggest that an exploration of what autonomy has meant for feminism and of how it can be

Cahiers du Genre, 2002

Dans Cahiers du Genre Cahiers du Genre 2002/2 (n° 33) 2002/2 (n° 33), pages 113 à 135 Éditions As... more Dans Cahiers du Genre Cahiers du Genre 2002/2 (n° 33) 2002/2 (n° 33), pages 113 à 135 Éditions Association Féminin Masculin Recherches Association Féminin Masculin Recherches

European Journal of Women's Studies, 2021

Feminism today is both recognizable and un-recognizable: its fast-changing pace of renewal, and t... more Feminism today is both recognizable and un-recognizable: its fast-changing pace of renewal, and the geographical and generational scope of its diffusion are transforming feminist practices, discourses and priorities as we knew them. However, much of it also remains familiar to scholars of feminism: not only the claims contemporary feminists are making but also the emotions that fuel feminism and the emotions that feminism ignite are recognizable to us. The anger, the joy, the fierceness, the wonder and the hope, but also the defiance, bitterness and anger among feminists are all emotions that have shaped and continue to shape feminist attachments (Ahmed, 2014). This special issue proposes to focus on emotions as a productive site to observe, analyse and interrogate feminism, its potentialities and its transformations. By which emotions is feminist activism sustained, inhibited or transformed? The various contributions to this special issue all investigate and reflect on the nature and the role of emotions in feminist activism. What are feminist emotions? How do they contribute to coalition building, intersectional practices or feminists' political imagination? Conversely, how do they prevent coalition or intersectional work, reproduce and secure asymmetrical power relations among feminists? Emotions have been a central site of investigation and conceptualization for feminist theory. Feminist philosophy and epistemology have reclaimed emotions as proper grounds for producing knowledge (Code, 1993; Jaggar, 1989

Law & Social Inquiry, 2020

French Politics, 2020

This article assesses the pre-adoption, adoption, implementation and impact of party parity penal... more This article assesses the pre-adoption, adoption, implementation and impact of party parity penalties established in 2002 to promote gender equality in the National Assembly. The analysis argues that while the penalties were implemented and increased over the years and had some success in enhancing women's numerical representation, from 12.3% of all MPs in 2002 to 38.7% in 2017, rather than being "more than meets the eye," the parity sanctions were actually far less. The limited scope and authority of the parity penalties and the gender-biased norms of key gatekeepers and political elites in the political parties and the high courts have circumscribed the extent of the progress in women's numerical representation and the quality of that representation; women MPs in the National Assembly still remain marginalized in a variety of ways in comparison with their male counterparts. Thus, the outcome of the party parity sanctions, in GEPP terms, is "gender accommodation" over "transformation."

Revue française de science politique, Jan 1, 2004

This article investigates the genesis of the rationale behind the demand for gender « parity » – ... more This article investigates the genesis of the rationale behind the demand for gender « parity » – numerical equality between men and women in elected assemblies – in France during the 1990s. Drawing from a supra-national legal framework promoting affirmative action policies toward women, the demand for parity has been increasingly justified by its supporters as a claim for the symbolic inscription of gender difference in political representation. This article analyzes the deployment of this specific rhetoric with regard to the discursive context in which the demand for parity emerged – characterized by the dominance of the « Republican universalism » model – and examines its effects on the translation of the claim into legislation at the end of the decade.

Ce numéro traite des luttes féministes autour des reconfigurations d'une « morale sexuelle contem... more Ce numéro traite des luttes féministes autour des reconfigurations d'une « morale sexuelle contemporaine » qui s'efforce, au-delà des normes religieuses traditionnelles, de définir les comportements convenables, acceptables, légitimes, valorisés, ou au contraire répréhensibles ou stigmatisés. À travers des objets divers comme la contraception, la prostitution, la SlutWalk (souvent traduit par Marche des salopes), le consentement des patientes en gynécologie, la régulation des naissances dans le mariage catholique, ce numéro analyse comment les divers discours féministes proposent des normes sexuelles alternatives pour réguler les sexualités. Les études de cas abordent des mobilisations anciennes et nouvelles, intra et extra-européennes. Editions Antipodes Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Mouvements, 2019

European Journal of Women's Studies, 2021

Black feminist theory and theorizations by feminists of colour have identified and explored emoti... more Black feminist theory and theorizations by feminists of colour have identified and explored emotions linked to race and racism in feminist movements, especially in the US context. Building on this literature, this article explores the changes in feminist emotional dynamics linked to race which have been brought up by the relatively recent adoption of intersectionality in feminist movements' discourses in two European countries, France and Switzerland, which are both often described as 'colour-blind' contexts. Drawing on Hochschild's concept of feeling rules, we argue that intersectionality has changed the ways feminists are legitimately expected to feel about race and racism within feminist movements in both contexts. As feeling rules vary according to the members' positions within the movement, we contend that these changes in emotional dynamics contribute to redefine feminists' relations and feminist membership along racial lines. Based on interviews with young feminist activists in France and Switzerland during mobilization processes characterized by a prominent use of intersectionality, we observe how intersectionality discourses bring about new feeling rules in relation to race and racism. These feeling rules differ for white and non-white feminists: while intersectionality has led young white feminists to self-education and self-critique, racialized feminists often expressed mixed feelings about intersectionality and its use, in particular by white feminists. Importantly, these changes in feeling rules have allowed racialized feminists to renegotiate their relations with white feminists and their emotional content, as well as their position within the movement.