This report presents the findings of a study of the application of the parity (equal gender opportunity) law in political life in New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna. In 2007, six years on from the first ‘equal-representation’ elections, little information was available on the positive or negative effects of this law. Not much progress had been made in devising ways of dealing with the negative effects or shortcomings identified as a result of the law’s introduction. The first full assessment of its application in France had just been issued, however. 1 Two student dissertations addressed the immediate application of the law in French Polynesia in 20012 and in New Caledonia in 2004.3 At the same time, Berman’s legal research4 yielded an initial socio-political analysis of aspects of the law’s application in New Caledonia. Sufficient time had elapsed to review the medium-term effects. This review was initiated in Vernaudon’s work for the Pacific Regional Workshop on Advancing Women’s Representation in Parliaments,5 and continued in this study.