This is what it means, it doesn't have anything to do with trying to pick up a girl.
Hope this helps.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-14 19:07:47 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------



Les phrases célèbres
La langue française recèle des trésors de phrases historiques et d\'expressions dont les origines sont souvent obscures. Et voilà quelques exemples.

Chercher la femme.
Aphorisme relevant de la misogynie générale de son époque, et sous-entendant que, derrière toute méchante affaire, il y a une femme. Se dit dans une enquête judicière lorsqu\'on recherche le motif qui a fait agir un suspect de sexe masculin. Il date au moins du début du XIX-e siècle.
from http://www.journalfrancophone.net/phrases.php

My Translation:
An aphorism that originated in the general misogyny of the times, based on the assumption that there\'s a woman behind every bit of nasty business. It is said in legal investigations when looking for the motive of a crime committed by a male subject. It dates from the early 19th Century, at least.

Chercher la femme.
Aphorisme relevant de la misogynie générale de son époque, et sous-entendant que, derrière toute méchante affaire, il y a une femme. Se dit dans une enquête judicière lorsqu'on recherche le motif qui a fait agir un suspect de sexe masculin. Il date au moins du début du XIX-e siècle.

I think it is understood this way nowadays

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-14 19:28:47 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Sorry womankind

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-14 19:31:26 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I mean, femininity :-I

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-14 22:54:57 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Still not recovered from my tip of the tongue effect, here is a nice picture about what chercher la femme mainly means (to me):

http://www.jdarchitects.com/interior/chercher.html

A synonym: Looking for the perfect woman, if exists.

some of the possible answers:

-she is just mechanical sexuality (dadaists)
-there is a perfect woman in every woman (humanism).
-the properties of a perfect woman must be first identified (with reference to the surrounding world, as for example the calmness of...before/when.....).
- there is no perfect woman.







--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-16 00:59:02 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Truly, chercher la femme has several meanings <I also found one in
psychoanalysis>. Off note: The essense/(idea)/meaning/implications of
word \"the woman\". Changed a lot in the past century ....looking for the perfect beat (an MTV slogen- (paraphrase?)) Seek(ing) the woman.

wire-puller

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-14 19:36:44 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

or a \"shadow figure/person\"

The French idiom implies that there is systematically some female involvement behind everything, not necessarily implicating any identified individual. There might be an English equivalent, but it doesn't come to mind just now.

Agree: "there's a woman behind this", but Phrase finder also gives the following:



--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-14 21:46:47 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Meaning

The common usage of this relates to the quest for a woman as a sexual partner. The original meaning refers to a problem that would be solved if a woman could be found.

Origin
Coined by Alexandre Dumas in Les Mohicans de Paris, 1864.

An idiomatic version of \'Meaning\' here would be something like:
\"on the pull\" (UK)

Il ne faut pas cherche la femme a quartorze heure...let's be simple please

Instead of the age-old theme of ‘chercher la femme’ (look for the woman),
“this is the girl” is the mantra that Mulholland Drive follows. ...
www.modeweekly.com/2001/01.09.27/ 01.09.27_now_showing.htm - 8k - Cached - Similar pages

Rings Around Cigars: The Cigar Band
... French police officers say chercher le femme [look for the woman], but accountants
everywhere advise "follow the dollars." As best we can tell, sex doesn't ...
www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/Aficionado/Archives/ 199412/fe1294.html%7C1234567890123456789112353872 - 23k - Cached - Similar pages




--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-15 15:25:13 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Of course, it can be left in English and pronounced \"chercher la FEM\" as they did in the TV show, la femme Nikita.

Some years ago, the art magazine FMR published an article entitled: Cherchez la mouche in which there was much comment on the presence of flies in Renaissance Dutch and Italian painting.

Where is the woman (reponsible for this)or Find the woman (behind this)

"cherchez la femme" is used quite commonly in English in "educated" language register

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-15 00:29:55 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

It has to be a woman !
There has to be a woman behind this

Find the Lady who is responsible

This is how it appears in the Hungarian-English dictionary.
Although, I would use "behind" instead of "it", as another colleague suggested.