Cherchez la femme

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Cherchez la femme is a French phrase which literally means "look for the woman."

The expression comes from the 1854 book The Mohicans of Paris by Alexandre Dumas (père). The original passage reads:

Il y a une femme dans toute les affaires; aussitôt qu'on me fait un rapport, je dis: 'Cherchez la femme'.

Translated into English this reads:

There is a woman in every case; as soon as they bring me a report, I say, 'Look for the woman'.

The phrase embodies a cliché of detective pulp fiction: no matter what the problem, a woman is often the root cause. The phrase has also come to mean more simply "Look for the root cause of the problem."