Gender equality has otherwise featured little in a campaign dominated by the war in Ukraine and the cost of living, but feminist organizations and academics are nonetheless working to highlight the major challenges women in the country face over the next five years, including femicide, gendered Islamophobia, pay inequality and precarious employment.
“The law is reshaping most civil liberties by weakening them,” says Rim-Sarah Alouane, a legal scholar and researcher at the University Toulouse Capitole. “It affects a whole range of people, but the law was designed to frame and control Muslims. And the first victims will be Muslim women.”
Le Pen, who describes herself as a feminist, has worked to soften her image in recent years.
For the next presidential term, Silvera says the best way to reduce economic inequality between men and women would be to raise wages in these heavily feminized professions. So far, Macron’s gender equality policies have mostly helped women “at the top of the pyramid,” she says.