France is notorious for the underrepresentation of women in its halls of politics. Having been unsuccessful at implementing quotas for female candidates--unlike several of their European neighbors--France passed a gender parity law in 2000 that required all political parties to field an equal number of male and female candidates. Yet in the 2002 elections the main political parties fell well short of nominating equal numbers of male and female candidates. How did parity replace gender quotas as the preferred way to achieve greater representation for women in elected office? Why have these...