You have to know how to rejoice. There are, in the IFA-Ethics & Boards barometer published on February 29, two curves which should reassure us about French society. The first concerns the place of women in the management bodies of large companies. When the Copé-Zimmermann law was introduced in 2011, requiring 40% women on boards of directors – at the time there were only 10% – few imagined the incredible transformation that would follow. Not only has this threshold of 40% been reached, but it has been exceeded, since women occupy nearly 47% of the CAC 40 seats: one more effort, and parity will be achieved!
Second reason for satisfaction, the increasing diversity of management committees. Here too, this trend was boosted by the Rixain law of 2021, which imposes “balanced representation between women and men among senior executives and members of governing bodies” and provides for quotas to be achieved by 2026 and then to 2029. In twelve years, the share of women on management committees has more than doubled, exceeding 27% for CAC 40 companies, very far from the objective of 30% set for 2026. A slower progression than that observed within boards of directors, but constant.
Shape the paths to this equality from school
This is proof that mandatory quotas to change the face of companies work. But is it enough? Obviously not: when we look for big bosses in France, we still find just as few of them, those at the head of a CAC 40 company can be counted on the fingers of one hand. A woman, at the helm of a flagship of the French industry, recently told me about her feeling of loneliness in a still very masculine world. To escape it, she regularly socializes with her female colleagues at the head of large companies. “We have dinner together four or five times a year, and we have fascinating discussions that we would not be able to share with men,” she confides.
What is certain is that as useful as they are, quotas are not enough to completely break through the glass ceilings still in place. Quite simply because the culture of gender equality cannot be decreed: it is learned from a very young age. To one day have 20 women at the head of the CAC 40 – but also parity at all levels of companies – it is essential to shape the paths to this equality from school. For example: mathematics or science courses are not reserved for boys! There is an urgent need to realize this, so as not to leave the world of tech solely in male hands. “By achieving perfect parity in access to innovation professions, we would almost double the potential of innovators,” notes economist Xavier Jaravel, in his work Marie Curie lives in Morbihan (Threshold, 2023). And in this talent pool, how many “futures” Xavier Niel (Iliad) or Arthur Mensch (Mistral AI) for women?
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