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Debates and arguments have promoted political action in favor of equal gender representation. As the law is being implemented, it is a good time to sit back and think the issue over. Memories and first assessments add up. Additionally to the mathematical aspect of equal gender representation, a confusion of this notion with that of equality has proven to be both positive and negative. The transfers of meaning and the fantasies about the so-called values specific to each gender have ignored the mathematical value of equal gender representation, triggering quarrels so outdated they seemed sometimes surprising. Fear is often present in debates among democrats, and the neuter is referred to as a guarantee. But the neuter has a better role to play, that of a fiction that is historically dynamic.