France, March 17 -- For the first time, every municipality in France - from major cities to villages with just a few hundred residents - must present gender-balanced candidate lists, following a change in the law adopted in May last year.

The reform means that whichever parties come out on top next Sunday, around half of France's 460,000 municipal councillors will be women.

"It's a huge collective success that we're building on parity and gender equality in politics in France," says Julia Mouzon, founder of the Elues Locales ("Female local officials") network, which supports and promotes women running for local office.

"We have some of the most ambitious laws in the world regarding politics and gender and the place of women in pol...