INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GENDER PARITY AND WOMEN IN LEASDERSHIP POSITIONS WARSAW – APRIL 10, 2013 The experience of F

1. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GENDER PARITY AND WOMEN IN LEASDERSHIP POSITIONS WARSAW – APRIL 10, 2013 The experience of France By Valérie Tandeau de Marsac Professor at EDHEC

2. A few words about the speaker’s experience • The French paradox : Rights of Man or HumanRights ? • The long road to parity • Politics : comply or pay ? • Boardrooms : an encouragingimprovement

3. A few words about the speaker’s experience • French lawyerspecialized in Family Business Law • Co-author of a studycommissioned by the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs to compare best practices in the field of relationship between company supervisory bodies and management and formulate recommendations • Founderand President of the non profit association voxfemina, created to raise the media visibility of women who have responsible jobs, in public life in general and business and the economy in particular.

5. Our findings Benchmark on EuropeanLegislationrelating to Parity (Hard Law)

6. Our findings Benchmark on European Gouvernance Code (Soft Law)

7. Our recommendations

8. Why is voxfeminainteresting in the perpective of quotas • Problem : competent women exist but are not visible • The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) maps the representation of women and men in news media worldwide • GMMP Report 2010 shows that46% of stories reinforce gender stereotypes, almost eight times higher than stories that challenge such stereotypes (6%) and that only 19% of spokespersons and 20% of experts are women • The United Nations recommended as early as 1995 (Beijing Platform for Action) to : • « increase the participation and access of women to expression and decisionmaking in and through the media and new technologies of communication » and • to « promote a balanced and non-stereotypedprotrayal of women in the media »

9. Why is voxfeminainteresting in the perpective of quotas • To address the issues highlighted by the United Nations, voxfeminawascreated in 2010 as a non-profit organization. • voxfeminapromotes the visibility in the media of high-levelprofessionalwomen (www.voxfemina.asso.fr): • by creating an on-line directory of female experts who are professionalauthorities in the business world • and lobbying towards the media and journalists • to increase the presence of women in the media as sources in the news • thuspromotingalternaterolemodelsratherthan the usualstereotypes • and contribute to a betterbalanced business world

10. Another interesting initiative of female lawyers • Association FEMMES AAA+’smission is to promote women lawyers and/or legal experts, as directors on boards of listed or unlisted companies, and communicate on the subject of women lawyers and/or legal experts as directors on boards of listed or unlisted companies • FEMMES AAA+ aimsat: • contributing to the successful balancing of boards with a desire to contribute to the overall business performance • giving women the means to succeed through training, certification, mentoring by senior administrators …

11. The French paradox • The principles of French revolutiontends to prevailover the necessityto eliminate all forms of discrimination againstWomen (although the CEDAW convention wasratified by France in 1979)

12. The French paradox • In contrast to the UniversalDeclaration of HumanRights, sexis not takenintoaccount as a factor of discrimination in the French Constitution

13. The long road to parity : The 1999 Constitutional Reform • In 1982, the Constitutional Council censured a lawwhichprovideda quota 25% of women in legislativefonctions • Successive governments, fearing a new censure, gave up on quotas until 1997, when Prime Minister Lionel Jospin commitedhimself to reform the Constitution to register the parity in it • The Constitutionallaw of July 8th 1999 changed Article 3 of the Constitution to providethat « the law supports the equalaccess of the women and the men to the electoral mandates and electivefunctions» • Article 4 wasamended to providethatpolitical parties shallcontribute to the implementation of thisprinciple • This reformenabled the promulgation of the lawproviding for equalaccess of the women and the men to the electoral mandates and electivefunctionson June 6, 2000.

14. The long road to parity: the 2006 failure • In 2006, a bill was submitted to the French National Assembly and Senate. It aimed at removing he wages differences between men and women • The law also provided a system of quota which should make easier the access of women to responsibilities • By a decision of March 16th 2006, the Constitutional Council declared that this article was against the Constitution • Basis for this decision was that nominations should be based on competence, experience and skills, not gender (or else it’s a threat to equality)

15. The long road to parity: the 2008 Constitutionnalreform • In 2008, a Constitutionnalreformisconsidered to modernize the VthRepublicinstitutions. • To increase the politicalparity but also the professionalequality, a few changes have been made: • A paragraphisadded to the Article 1 whichprovidenowthat the Law «promoteequalaccess by women and men to elective offices and posts as well as to professional and social positions ». • The last paragraph of Article 3 had been deleted and the second paragraph of Article 4 had been replaced by the following: « the Political parties shallcontribute to the implementation of the principle set out in the second paragraph of article 1 as provided for by statute. »

16. Chronologicalmilestones of the legislativeevolution for the PoliticalParity

17. The long road to parity: the 2011 law • Finally, the current quota legislation was adopted in France in January 2011: • all companies >50 M € (turnover or net worth) • and >500 employees • minimum 20% of each sex no later than 2014 • minimum 40% of each sex in 2017 • any wrongful nomination will be null and void • The law does not apply to state-owned companies, not to the public administration

18. Politics : comply or pay ? Total of deduction on the grant of main political party for Parity in 2011 Source: Observatoire de la Parité

19. Parity in the board rooms : encouraging results Source: Gouvernance & Structure, G & S, Monsieur Guy Le Péchon: guy.le-pechon@m4x.org