In France, the allocation of public funding to political parties is contingent on gender equality requirements. By law, if the difference based on sex among candidates put forward by political parties during the last parliamentary elections is larger than 2%, public funding is reduced by 3/4 of this difference. Since the inception of the system, French political parties have chosen to pay the penalty rather than nominate more female candidates. During the 12th legislature (2002-2007), political parties lost annually 7 million EUR; during the 13th legislature (2007-2012) parties lost 6 million EUR per year; and since the beginning of the 14th legislature (2012 to now) political parties have lost annually 6 million EUR.

Although French media regularly report on the amount of the annual penalties political parties have to pay, nothing has been done since the inception of the system. Political parties prefer to pay fines rather than opening candidatures for women.