The trajectory of Moroccan women’s formal participation in the political sphere has undergone several changes in the last ten years due to different reconfigurations – starting from the adoption of the new Constitution in 2011 as a response to the citizens’ demands developed around the February 20th Movement – although questionings of the secondary status of women in society were already strongly present throughout the 20th century. 

The association Tazghart, which works for active citizenship with a focus on the role of women in the country’s democratic process, published a field diagnosis in 2018 on the role of elected women in the province of Ifrane, in the Fés-Meknès region, drawing conclusions that can be used to reflect on different levels of analysis.

This article explores some of the dynamics that explain why women’s participation in the political sphere in Morocco cannot be reduced to a percentage determined by the institution of a new legal framework, and highlights how the complexity of the balance between form and substance is reflected both in the internal fractures of feminist social movements and in concrete local administration, as illustrated by some findings of the case of Ifrane diagnosis.