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 We just covered this trend on November 8 when Nancy Pelosi and a growing contingent of female colleagues captured high offices in the U.S. government, but Segolene Royal’s extraordinary drive toward the French presidency bears watching. The race, which will be decided next spring, is currently a dead heat between Royal and conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy.

Socionomcally speaking, Royal looks more like the front runner. A bearish turn toward the Joan Of Arc effect discussed in Prechter Perspective is visible through the course of her just completed campaign. Calling her “naïve and inexperienced,” opponents openly “mocked her proposal to create ‘citizens’ juries to pass judgment on the work of elected officials.” When she defended herself with the following comment her opponents probably thought they had her: "Democracy is like love. The more there is of it, the more it grows.”  The comment played right into their charges of naivety. If one of them had said it, it certainly would have  been percieved that way. But Royal can get away with it for the same reason she would have been laughed at in a bull market -- she's a woman. French voters are ready for the "rupture," and, EWI has long argued, female sensibilities appeal to a more bearish electorate. The big shift is visible in the magazine spread shown above. Initially, opponents were hoping her “unabashedly feminine attire” would “dent her credibility,” but by the end of the election, she was being “criticized by her rivals for playing the woman card.” Talk about a turn in the social order; what was once an insurmountable liability is now an unfair advantage.