Abstract
If the French marked the European Parliament as early as 1979, it was because men were happy to do an ingrate job in a Parliament without power, media resonance and far from Paris, where it was necessary to be a career in politics. But the 1984 and 1989 campaigns are hardly conducive to feminist expression, but 1994 marks a real turning point. After the commitment of the feminist associations to the “yes” in the referendum on the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and the launch of the fight for parity in politics, many female candidates appeared as feminists on the lists put to the vote. Monique Dental, Antoinette Fouque, Gisèle Halimi and others expressed their feminist ideas, which seemed to be more concrete at European level than in France. In 1999, Geneviève Fraisse was also in this position to engage as a feminist in the European election campaign. What is the meaning of these European moments in the trajectories and paths of feminists in the second wave? Is it possible to grasp the relationship between the two commitments, one first and foremost, the other more pragmatic and appearing to be more specific? How does the European dimension enrich the feminism of activists?