Fault Lines in France on Women

PARIS — The French Revolution was supposed to create a new national identity for the French people: the “citizen” who would be equal under the law.

The male citizen, that is. The Declaration of the Rights of Man declared men, not women, “free and equal in rights.” French women were allowed to study in universities only in 1880 and got the vote in 1944. Today, they hold a meager 18 percent of the seats in Parliament; women’s salaries are nearly 20 percent lower than men’s.

So as France celebrated Bastille Day, and the sad scandal of Dominique Strauss-Kahn continues, the country is struggling with a modern-day identity crisis: the place of women.

“The question of genuine equality for women has been deferred since the French Revolution,” said Joan W. Scott, the eminent American historian of France. “The Strauss-Kahn affair has put it back on the table.”

Indeed, the Strauss-Kahn episode has exposed three fault lines in French society. One is a gender gap between women who want to talk about equality and justice and men who want to move on. Another is a generation gap between younger men whose consciousness about women’s rights has been raised and older men who just don’t get it.

Finally, the scandal has triggered a messy, mean debate about feminism and how to reconcile it with femininity.

The gender gap: There is no expression for “gender gap” in French. But a Harris poll released last week concluded that among voters who had turned against Mr. Strauss-Kahn as their choice for president, more women cited his sexual behavior, while more men cited excessive spending habits.

As the Strauss-Kahn saga moves into its third month, many women are demanding to be heard, while many men are losing interest. Suddenly, issues like rape, incest and sexual harassment have been worthy of debate. Forty feminist organizations met at a conference in the Paris suburb of Évry and pledged to make the war against rape their main cause in the coming year.

Françoise Bellot, head of the feminist Collective Against Rape, had never been invited to appear on French television. Now she is talking over and over — about the 75,000 women raped in France every year.

Will the conversation continue?

“With a difficult economy in France and the monetary crisis in Europe, many men are saying, ‘Let’s go back to the essentials,”’ said Michelle Perrot, a French historian of women. “A lassitude is setting in. It’s not very glorious.”

The generation gap: In French politics, even within Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s Socialist Party, younger men say they are more willing than party elders to take seriously the charges against him and to use the episode to promote the cause of women.

“The idea that every time he sees a woman he seems to want to possess her doesn’t sit well with us,” said Thierry Marchal-Beck, 24, national secretary of the Youth Socialist Party. “Even if it was consensual sex with a hotel maid, it’s still an abuse of power. It’s very important for men — young men — to take the leads in the feminist moment and to rise up and fight for equality between men and women.”

The feminist debate: Can women gain power and still wear flouncy skirts and be complimented by men on their perfume? Can women demand equal rights without becoming politically correct Americanized harpies? Can feminists be feminine?

Some leading female intellectuals have evoked what they call a unique French-style feminism that involves old-fashioned rituals of gallantry, politesse and seduction.

Irène Théry, for example, in discussing the Strauss-Kahn case in Le Monde, argued that French women can use seductive wiles to have it all. She praised “a certain way of living and not just thinking that rejects the impasses of the politically correct, wants equal rights of the sexes and the asymmetrical pleasures of seduction, the absolute respect of consent and the delicious surprises of stolen kisses.”