18%: this is the female share of management positions in the top 40 French start-ups, according to a joint report by the Boston Consulting Group and the Sista collective (1), which works to open the doors - and the funds - more widely. entrepreneurship for women.
Start-ups, these innovative companies whose successes are so widely celebrated, therefore prove to be less equal than CAC40 companies.
Why ?
And, above all, how to fix it?
Decryption with Clara Chappaz, director of Mission French Tech, the public body responsible for supporting the ecosystem.
Miss Figaro. - Did these figures surprise you?
Clara Chappaz.
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No, but they didn't make me happy for all that… One of them, in particular, struck me: 25% of the start-ups studied, ie one in four, have no female directors.
However, these companies are innovating to meet the major challenges of tomorrow.
Excluding women from decision-making means losing performance and running the risk of introducing huge biases.
All is not gloomy, fortunately: other reports, including Sista, reflect a positive dynamic, in particular on access to financing.
Nevertheless, cultural biases persist.
Read alsoTatiana Jama of the Sista collective: “In the coming years, several unicorns will be led by women and we will finance them”
How to change the situation?
By acting on all the links in the chain.
This is the objective of the five commitments of the Parity Pact, launched by the French Tech Mission last June with 72 French Tech Next40/120 start-ups, joined by others since.
These are five concrete commitments that aim to create role models in start-ups, transform recruitment processes, train 100% of managers in the challenges of diversity, support each employee returning from parental leave and reach 20% women on boards of directors by 2025, then 40% by 2028.
To read alsoClara Chappaz, the French Tech: "Yes, you can be in your thirties, a management position and a family"
Should we go further?
These commitments are necessary but insufficient.
Fortunately, the legislation is changing, as with the Rixain law of 2021, which imposes quotas of female leaders on companies with more than 1,000 employees.
Even if they are not there, French Tech entrepreneurs have been clear: they are not waiting for the law to act.
The ecosystem must accelerate on the subject, it has the capacity and the will to do so.
I am optimistic: the next few years will show women that they have their place in French start-ups.
(1) "
FrenchTech120: governing bodies very far from parity
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, joint report by BCG and the Sista collective published in November 2022.
