This is the first systematic study of French policy regarding equal employment policy for women. Mazur asks why policy makers choose to make symbolic reforms and examines five legislative proposals, three of which resulted in legislation: the 1972 Equal Pay Law, the 1975 Equal Treatment Law, and the 1983 Egalite Professionelle Law. These five case studies reveal the continuity over three decades of "symbolic" reform, reform that does not solve the problem it was designed to address.