She is known for having been Minister of Labor in the government of Édouard Philippe.
Less for his activity as a photographer.
However, at 68 years old, Muriel Pénicaud has just concluded an exhibition on the theme of earth, sky and women at the Collège des Bernardins, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris.
For the inauguration, at the beginning of February, the woman who received her first camera at the age of 11, a black and white Polaroid, said she had “crazy stage fright”.
“We all have a sensitive part of ourselves, it is very important for understanding life.
And it’s quite vital to want to share it today,” the former minister tells us through the Zoom screen.
“In recent years, I have been practicing photography, but under a bushel.
Now I want to be completely myself.
It’s also a way of showing that we can have several lives and that they all feed off each other.”
To discover
Business with Attitude 2024 Prize: vote for your favorite candidate!
Muriel Pénicaud, self-portrait in black and white.
Muriel Pénicaud
This life as a photographer will surprise more than one, since Muriel Pénicaud is best known to the general public for having held management positions within large companies (Dassault Systèmes, Danone) and for having been Minister of Labor from 2017 to 2020. It was also from rue de Grenelle that she launched the “Pénicaud Index”, a tool which requires companies to measure their score in terms of professional equality.
Muriel Pénicaud returns to this index which celebrated its 5th anniversary on March 1, and whose results for the year 2023 have just been released.
Interview.
Madame Figaro.-
You launched the Professional Equality Index in 2018. Today, five years later, what assessment do you draw from it?
Muriel Pénicaud.-
It had already been 46 years since the law said: “Equal pay for equal work” without this being respected, things were progressing too slowly.
From now on, with this index, there is an obligation of results for companies in terms of equality.
Not only does this instrument make it possible to measure the state of equality between women and men in the same society, but it serves as a control.
In four years, the average went from 84 to 88 points.
It's an improvement, but it's only a start.
Actual equality is set at 100/100 points.
Only 2% of companies achieve this score today.
So they still have a lot of progress to make!
If a company has a score below 75/100, it must urgently put measures in place.
Otherwise, financial sanctions (
up to 1% of payroll, Editor's note
) may be imposed.
After four years of hindsight – the year 2019 having served as a partial test – we can welcome the dynamic and welcome the awareness of companies and their initial progress.
In fact, many of them did not realize that they were discriminating against their employees.
We cannot completely resolve in 4 years inequalities that have lasted for 400 years - or more.
The obligation and the impulse are there, but we must not let go, amplify and accelerate.
How exactly did you imagine this Index with the social partners? Did you take inspiration from a particular model?
Before, nothing existed.
A few companies had put “in-house” indicators in place, but there were no common tools.
To create it, we worked on it for four months with not only the social partners, but also the HCE (High Council for Equality between Women and Men), networks of women in businesses, HR managers and parliamentarians.
For the record, when I was minister, all the number one social partners, employers and unions, were men.
So when I brought them together, the scene was rather funny, even though it was a question of professional equality.
But they all committed.
And their number two who negotiated were women.
Still, at the end of these 4 months of consultation, we decided to set 5 evaluation criteria.
So, I know that there are criticisms or reservations according to which the Index does not go far enough, does not analyze inequalities in detail.
But we wanted this tool to remain simple so that SMEs, management committees and CSEs could use it to take action.
And today, it is clear that France was a pioneer in this area.
Europe was inspired by our index to put in place a directive on equal pay.
Now that it is well established, we will be able to go further and “zoom in” for example on the salaries of part-time women (which today are integrated into the calculation in full-time equivalents).
Let's refine the tool, but let's not break the thermometer, otherwise the dynamic of progress will decline.
"Glass ceiling."
Muriel Pénicaud
What may be surprising when we look at the Index criteria is that one of them takes into account the increase in women returning from maternity leave. However, this is an obligation that dates from a law from 2006…
It is true that this was one of the questions we asked ourselves in 2018 during the working group.
The partners around the table said that this provision was not respected at all.
On a logical level, it obviously seems absurd to put in a law something that requires you to respect a law.
But here, we wanted to take a pragmatic approach, saying that we were “fed up” with this not being respected and that we had to ensure that it was.
It worked.
For the moment, the overall rating of companies is improving year after year, but inequalities remain, particularly in terms of remuneration and career progression. What is still blocking?
This blocks for several reasons.
First of all, it is a subject of collective mentality.
Many companies maintain this prejudice according to which women will be absent during maternity leave, and that when they have children, they will be less committed and less available.
So, is it worth giving him a promotion?
This kind of reasoning seems archaic, yet it persists.
The OECD has also shown this: when the first child arrives, women's careers plateau, while men's begin to accelerate.
At the 2nd, it stops for women, and accelerates ever more for men.
With the 3rd child, it’s a disaster.
For four years, companies have had time to implement the HR and managerial strategies necessary for women's career progression and salaries.
It is a question of justice but also a demonstrated advantage of economic performance.
We must therefore raise the level of requirements.
I recommend that the minimum score for sanctions now be 85 and not 75 points.
Then we will move on to another level.
Let's not give up, until complete equality between women and men.