Issues affecting women in which the French government should get involved 2023

According to a survey conducted in 2023, 93 percent of French women believed it was important for the French government to be involved in the fight against sexual harassment. Moreover, 90 percent of them also thought it was important for the government to be involved in the fight against female genital mutilation in the world. 

Polymorphous and large-scale violence

According to the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), ratified by France on July 4, 2014, the term "violence against women" should be understood as a "violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women, and refers to all acts of gender-based violence that result in, or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats to engage in such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether in public or private life."

In 2021, there were nearly 321,000 women victims of physical, sexual, or verbal violence by their partner or ex-partner, as well as 122 women killed by their spouses. And, while this figure had fallen slightly in 2020, domestic violence is far from having ceased during lockdowns. In fact, according to a survey conducted in November 2020, nearly one in ten French women had experienced domestic violence during the first lockdown period (March 17 to May 11, 2020), and this proportion was even higher among mothers.

Improving penal response

According to ministerial data, in 2023, the number of men indicted for sexual violence amounted to around 73,730, and in 2021, the number of convictions for rape to 1,413. Yet, in 2022, more than 76,000 women were victims of sexual violence, and more than 34,000 were victims of rape. Moreover, almost 80 percent of cases of sexual violence were dismissed by the public prosecutor's office, and this proportion even exceeds 83 percent in cases of sexual harassment.

More generally, the quality of police handling of complaints of domestic, sexual, or gender-based violence in France is far from being unanimously approved. Only one-third of victims who have filed a complaint report that they were well taken care of by law enforcement. On the contrary, others mention a trivialization of the facts on the part of the police, frequent refusals to take the complaint into account, discouragement, and even guilt-inducing speeches or discriminating statements.

Thus, the denunciation of the lack of means put in place by the government and of the absence of structural reforms on the part of many feminist associations does not seem surprising. These associations perceive the "great cause of the five-year term" as a series of announcements that have produced very few results. In fact, in October 2021, only half of French women said they were satisfied with Emmanuel Macron's actions regarding women's rights.