Research Seminar by professor Lise CHATAIN

This essay on the impact of taxation on gender equality is the result of a series of encounters over the past few years—with lawyers, sociologists, and political figures—within the framework of my work in tax law. It all began when I started to take an interest in the hypothesis of gender (in)equality in taxation, first through a commentary on a decision of the Conseil d’État, and later in connection with the reform introducing the withholding of income tax at source. These encounters and shared reflections brought to light a diffuse sense of unease, even confusion, in the face of certain tax rules which, viewed from a theoretical—or rather, abstract—standpoint, appeared perfectly neutral, understandable, and acceptable, yet whose practical, that is to say, real-life application created numerous difficulties for those subject to them, primarily women.

Thus, I was led to reconsider the field I study and teach—tax law—through this deliberate analytical lens focused on the situation of women in contemporary French society, not in the neutral and abstract manner in which it is often presented, but in a contextualized way, attentive to the real, practical effects of taxation on women.

From this analysis emerged the realization that tax law, in fact, has a gender.