The women of France agree electing a female president would be a giant step forward for a nation which has treated career women poorly. However, feminists are split over whether presidential hopeful Segolene Royal is the best person to advance their fight for equal rights in a country where a revolutionary heroine is the national symbol.
To some, the Socialist mother of four is a perfect example of a woman who has managed to balance the pressures of career and family. Others, ranging from business leaders to feminist campaigners, say Royal's image of the family is too traditional and she has lent weight to the "woman as victim" idea by accusing her rivals of chauvinism.
Compared with Germany's Angela Merkel, who talked little about her gender and wore no-nonsense black trouser suits on her way to becoming chancellor, Royal has built her campaign around the image of a youthful, feminine leader.
Sporting floating skirts and a trademark white jacket for her speeches, she has portrayed her philosophy as that of "a mother", played up her feminist past and accused male rivals of sexism.
The media have been fascinated by Royal, calling her stylish, pretty and even a "sexy Socialist". Paparazzi photos of Royal in a turquoise bathing suit excited papers for a week last year. "It's much harder for a woman," Royal told millions of French during a recent TV debate. She said she was facing more attacks on her competence than a man would.
"I'm horrified by women who victimise themselves," said Tita Zeitoun, founder of the Action de Femme group which fights to get more women into top business positions. Figures show women in France are far from equal. Just 12 percent of lawmakers are female and only one woman heads a firm in the CAC-40 index of blue chip companies, and she is American.
Royal, who hardly ever wears trousers, has promised to promote the equal treatment of men and women in the work place if she is elected, and to combat violence against women.
Surveys show she has more fans among women than men. Some 53 percent of women would vote for her in the second round of the April/May poll but only 47 percent of men, according to a recent LH2 survey. Overall, that poll saw Royal and her centre-right rival Nicolas Sarkozy level.
Royal's ability to combine her political career with raising four children could actually alienate some voters with less conventional backgrounds. "Royal portrays a very Catholic and traditional vision of the world," said 46 year-old transvestite prostitute Nikita, who works with the prostitutes' network "Les Putes" (The Whores). "I find it disturbing that everyone calls her feminist."
Nikita noted Royal had for a long time spoken out against gay marriage and homosexuals adopting children before changing sides in the argument last year. Royal's feminist roots can be traced back to her struggle to break away from her authoritarian army colonel father, who believed his daughters' role lay in serving their husbands.
The studious Royal left home instead, studied and began working for Socialist President Francois Mitterrand. "She chose to achieve autonomous status through education. That was her first feminist move," said sociologist Mariette Sineau, a specialist on women's issues. Sineau said Royal had introduced important measures favouring women's rights during her time as a Socialist minister, such as making the morning-after pill available in schools or introducing paternity leave.
Royal was not shouting her feminism from the rooftops, said women's activist Fadela Amara, shrugging off criticism from some feminists who said Royal had not been on the streets in the 1970s feminist battle for abortion rights.
"I think you need to judge people by their actions," said Amara, the head of Ni Putes Ni Soumises (Neither Whores, Nor Submissive), an organisation fighting for the rights of girls living in poor neighbourhoods. "And in her acts, she has proven that she is profoundly feminist." Some feminists have accused Royal of playing up her femininity, rather than her feminism.
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