How Work is Allocated Among Members of Parliament in France

My project aims at studying how work is allocated among members of Parliament (MPs) in France. Who discuss and make economic and fiscal policies among MPs? Economics is a traditionally male-oriented field where women are under-represented both as students and faculty members. Does this under-representation of women in economic-related topics extend to the political realm? Although the quantitative representation of women in the French Parliament recently improved, this does not say much about the actual allocation of legislative work across gender. This project aims at studying differences in involvement across male and female MPs and more particularly how tasks are divided in traditionally male oriented fields such as economic and fiscal policies. I will analyze quantitatively most of the activities MPs are involved in: debates in plenary sessions, debates in permanent committees, texts of signed amendments and written questions to the Government in order to identify both quantitative and qualitative imbalances across gender and how they have evolved over time.