ABOUT THIS BOOK

This is the first systematic study of French policy regarding equal employment for women. Mazur asks why policy makers choose to make symbolic reforms. Is there a certain set of conditions particularly conducive to the formation of symbolic reform? If symbolic reforms are meant to do nothing, why do governments allocate limited resources to them?
Mazur examines five legislative proposals, dating from 1967 to 1982, three of which resulted in legislation: the 1972 Equal Pay Law. the 1975 Equal Treatment Law, and the 1983 Egalité Professionelle Law. These five case studies reveal the continuity over three decades of “symbolic” reform, reform that does not solve the problem it was designed to address.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Amy G. Mazur is C.O. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Washington State University, Pullman.

REVIEWS

“Mazur's in-depth case study of the limitation of equal employment policy in France provides important documentation and analysis regarding symbolic reform over several decades.”
—American Political Science Review

“Presents theoretically grounded research that employs both qualitative and quantitative methods to incorporate gender within comparative policy analysis. . . . This contextually rich study of French equal employment policy provides a theoretical answer to an important puzzle: why governments choose to make symbolic reforms which are 'meant to do nothing.' . . . The book leaves us with a useful analytic tool for examining the problem of symbolic policy formation, a problem which has for too long afflicted women's policy.”
—Women and Politics

“[Mazur] presents a minutely detailed account of how, in Fifth Republic France, a small policy community failed to achieve more than lip-service commitment to equalizing pay and working conditions for women. . . . [Her] rich description is valuable.”
—Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

List of Figures and Tables

Acronyms

Acknowledgments

1. Studying the Politics of Symbolic Reform

Case 1: Non-Decision Making Under de Gaulle

2. The Policy of Environment in the 1960s

3. Stalling Equal Pay Reform

Case 2: Symbolic Reform Under Pompidou

4. The Policy Environment in teh Early 1970s

5. Legislating and Implementing the 1972 Equal Pay Law

Case 3. Symbolic Reform Under Giscard

6. The Policy Environment in the Mid-1970s

7. Legislating and Implementing the 1973 Equal Treatment Law

Case 4. Symbolic Agenda Setting Under Giscard

8. The Policy Environment in the Late 1970s and the 1981 Egalite Professionelle Bill Proposal

Case 5. Toward Material Reform Under Mitterand

9. The Policy Environment in the Early 1980s

10. Legislating, Implementing, and Evaluating the 1983 Egalite Professionnelle Law

11. Equal Employment Policy and Symbolic Reform in Comparative Perspective

Appendix

Notes

References

Index

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