Like a rolling stone? The impact of parity law on French legislative candidates (2002-2017)

15 years after French parity law was passed, this article performs a systematic,longitudinal, sex-based comparative analysis on the profiles of French candidates anddeputies of the National Assembly. We study the evolution and transformation of theirsocio-demographic profiles from 2002 to 2017. While our main focus is on differenceswith regard to sex and party affiliation, we also investigate inequities related to othersocio-demographic factors. Our quantitative analyses show that despite considerableimprovement in women's political representation, there remain important pathdependentpatterns of gendered treatment of candidates among the seven majorFrench political parties