Are women a minority?

It's a long-standing issue for French feminists that one of the three tenets of the Republic -- liberty, equality, fraternity -- has no relevance for them. A new law to equate sexist or homophobic harassment with race crime is now being accused of offering greater protection to gays than to women. Sexism appears to have been added as an afterthought after the justice minister Dominique Perben explained that the law was designed to protect all minorities.
But it is the meaning of the word minority that has changed, rather than the need to protect smaller groups. People are minorised when they are discriminated against, not because they are fewer. Blacks in South Africa and women in France are not in the minority but have been discriminated against. The privileged are in a minority but already have plenty of laws to protect them.