French Parliament dominated by young women

THE French Parliament looks younger with new election of the National Assembly where overwhelming number of women have taken over seat committed to create a New France and rebuild it with new vision for future. France this time elected Emmanuel Macron as the younger President in its history with overwhelming majority on promise of change. French people elected more women this time also in line with their vision for new future. It is really interesting that the world is now watching France politics – everything in new hands to see how younger women can change the face of the nation largely left in ruin by corrupt politicians.

Compared to the previous record of 155 women in the National Assembly it now has 223 women MPs, including of course Marine Le Pen, Macron’s key political opponent and far right populist leader who wanted to break France from European Union. In all – 38 percent of France’s 577 MPs are now women – that’s a big jump from the 27 percent in the previous Parliament. Moreover, given Macron’s outspoken desire to bring more women into parliament, it is his REM party; which is leading by taking charge on this front. An impressive 47 percent of REM MPs are women to chart out new future for France.
 
There is even another uniqueness regarding the profession of many of these female parliamentarians – compared to the previous parliament, there will be far more entrepreneurs and corporate leaders as MPs instead of career politicians. This figure has gone up to 41 from the previous 19.

Such positive outcome from the recently concluded French elections not only points at an increasing women empowerment through the highest level of the political echelons of power in that country, but also shows women’s’ growing enthusiasm to take part in politics. However, following younger, both male and female politicians, France appears to be well-set and full of youthful vigour to take on the 21st Century challenges which have been often threatening the country’s socio-economic growth and political stability coupled with mounting security concerns. We believe these younger politicians will guide France in line with newer and more dynamic visions.

Many other democracies, including ours can draw valuable lessons from the growing participation of French women in National Elections. We also believe that the option for being elected from specified set of reserved seats for women in our parliament should either increase or their free participation should be encouraged in equal footing with men. Last but not least, in the global political arena it is the parity between men and women which have become a prominent issue nowadays. Bangladesh too with a growing younger generation should also embrace this social and political truth while encourage active participation of more talented younger women in our domestic politics.