Electoral competition and gender quotas: dearth of female applicants or structural resistance?

Gender equality has been a major discussion item on the French Ministry of Sports’ agenda in recent years. In terms of governance, in 2014, the law n°2014-873 ‘for true equality between women and men’ introduced two types of gender quota on the executive boards of national sports federations (NSFs). Senators and deputies relaxed the conditions regarding the implementation of quotas, alluding to a lack of female candidates. The present study...