"A club of guys in gray suits".
It is in these terms that the Minister responsible for gender equality, Élisabeth Moreno, designated the CAC 40 companies, considered to be the flagships of the French economy.
While we are celebrating, this Wednesday, ten years of the Copé-Zimmermann law which imposed quotas for women on the boards of directors of large and medium-sized companies, the time has come to take stock and to draw conclusions.
The text which set a quota of 40% of women administrators by 2017 is a success.
The objective is even exceeded but ...
"France is on the first step of the European podium"
“Thanks to your law, the boards of directors of CAC 40 companies have spectacularly feminized, going from barely 10% in 2009 to 44.6% today.
France is thus on the first step of the European podium and second in the world, behind Iceland ”, first rejoiced Élisabeth Moreno, during a round table organized on Tuesday, January 26 in Bercy, addressing to Marie-Jo Zimmermann and Jean-François Copé who carried the law in 2011. But on closer inspection, the finding is far from idyllic.
On the occasion of the anniversary of the Copé-Zimmermann law, @ 1ElisaMoreno gave a speech in which she recalled that “the CAC40 remains a club for guys in gray suits” and that “Parity is not charity”.
#EgalitePro pic.twitter.com/09YCL5fBJf
- Olivia Gregoire (@oliviagregoire) January 26, 2021
"I have followed a lot how the law has been implemented, as a director in companies since 2004", recognizes Catherine Dunand, the brand new president of the board of directors of Diabeloop, a company of around 100 of employees in full development.
His mission ?
Relieve people living with type 1 diabetes thanks to medical artificial intelligence.
“The problem is that the law is far from applicable to all businesses.
However, the majority of them, in France, are small companies which are not affected by the text.
It's not just the CAC 40!
», She insists.
“I am not, a priori, in favor of quotas but it is the least bad solution.
Otherwise, things don't change.
Instead of 10 years, we would have taken 200 years to arrive at the figures we have today.
We must pave the way for the generations to follow and undertake the same process for the management committees ”, suggests Catherine Dunand.
Only 17% of women in leadership
It is indeed on this point that the shoe pinches and the government does not say anything else.
“With Bruno Le Maire (
Editor's note
: Minister of the Economy
) and Élisabeth Borne (
Editor's note
: Minister of Labor
), we are deeply convinced: the issue of parity has not been resolved.
The fight for equality between women and men is not behind us.
While the Copé-Zimmermann law has had a positive effect on parity on boards of directors, women nevertheless continue to face a “glass ceiling” which too often excludes them from other management bodies.
These places where the decisions of the company are really made ”, slices Élisabeth Moreno.
Regarding management committees, the rate drops to 17% women.
"And if I had been told thirty years ago, when I started my professional career, that in 2021 a single woman would be at the head of the forty largest French companies (
Editor's note
: Catherine MacGregor, CEO from the energy group Engie
), I wouldn't have believed it for a second.
This is a real anomaly, ”annoys the minister responsible for gender equality, former president of Hewlett-Packard Africa.
"We must now be able to move up a gear, and therefore to enter into a more ambitious logic which involves quotas", estimated Bruno Lemaire before the delegation for women's rights of the National Assembly, on January 18.
A cause for which he wants the tabling of a bill in mid-March.
Quotas recommended for executive and management committees
In its report submitted to the three ministers at the end of the round table, the High Council for Gender Equality (HCE) also called for the extension to the executive and management committees of the Copecan law. Zimmermann, who imposes this quota of 40% of women in companies with at least 250 employees.
He asks, in particular, to "correlate the allocation of public funding with the fulfillment of obligations in terms of parity and professional equality".
The aspirations therefore seem unanimously shared.
pic.twitter.com/PdQAANR0FU
- High Council for Equality (@HCEfh) January 26, 2021
And Élisabeth Moreno assent during her vows to the press, also organized on Tuesday January 26: “Yes, I plead for quotas in the management bodies.
Yes, I would like the transparency imposed by the Professional Equality Index to be reinforced.
Yes, I wish we were more ambitious.
Because, parity is not charity.
Parity is a matter of justice.
"