Presentation vtm au parlement polonais

Conference on female quota in leadership positions

The experience of France

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON

GENDER PARITY AND WOMEN IN

LEASDERSHIP POSITIONS

WARSAW – APRIL 10, 2013


By Valérie Tandeau de Marsac

Professor at EDHEC



A few words about the speaker’s experience

The French paradox : Rights of Man or Human Rights ?

The long road to parity

Politics : comply or pay ?

Board rooms : an encouraging improvement

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A few words about the speaker’s experience

French lawyer specialized in Family Business Law

Co-author of a study commissioned 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

Founder and 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. 3



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Our findings

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Benchmark on European Legislation relating to Parity (Hard Law)

Country Dates Legislation enforced

France 2011 The Law requires that the proportion of women and men directors

should reach 20% by 2014 up to 40% by 2017.

Belgium

2011

At least one third of board members of publicly-listed companies

and state-owned companies needs to be of the under-represented

sex

There is a specific sanction consisting in suspension of any

advantage, financial or otherwise, attached to the position of

director for all the members of the board as long as the composition

of a board does not comply with the quota.

Austria

2011

The Austrian Council of Ministers implemented a quota for

supervisory boards which applies to companies in which the state’s

ownership equals or exceeds 50 percent. Companies meeting this

criterion are required to have 25 percent of their boards

represented by women by 2013, increasing to 35 percent by 2018.

Spain

2007

The Spanish Organic Law on gender equality encourages large

companies to alter the membership of their boards gradually until

each sex makes up at least 40 % by 2015.



Benchmark on European Gouvernance Code (Soft Law)

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Country Dates Code of Gouvernance

Germany

2010 Promotes a greater femal representation on supervisory and

management board. Failure to adhere to these is subject to the

‘comply or explain’ rule. Thus, the supervisory body must seek to

achieve an adequate level of female representation.

United

Kingdom

2012

A report by Lord Davies, dated 24 February 2011, entitled ‘Women on

Boards’ gives various recommendations on the subject of women

gaining access to these bodies. In 2012, the government had not

implemented any of these recommendations and did not plan to

legislate in this area, but two revisions had been published requiring

companies to report annually on their boardroom diversity policy and

to include gender diversity in the evaluation of board effectiveness.

Denmark

2011

Denmark has revised the recommendations in its corporate

governance code to stress the need to increase the number of

women in positions of responsibility and set new targets. This

corporate governance code only applies to listed companies.

Romania

2010

Romania has not adopted any special regulations on equality in

bodies exercising supervisory duties.

There are only legal provisions on equality in general, which are

rather limited in the area of discrimination against women

Our findings



Our recommendations

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Why is voxfemina interesting 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 that 46% 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 decision making in and through the media

and new technologies of communication » and

– to « promote a balanced and non-stereotyped protrayal of

women in the media »



To address the issues highlighted by the United Nations,

voxfemina was created in 2010 as a non-profit organization.

voxfemina promotes the visibility in the media of high-level

professional women (www.voxfemina.asso.fr):

– by creating an on-line directory of female experts who are

professional authorities 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

– thus promoting alternate role models rather than the usual

stereotypes

– and contribute to a better balanced business world

Why is voxfemina interesting in the perpective of quotas



Another interesting initiative of female lawyers

Association FEMMES AAA+’s mission 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+ aims at:

– 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 …

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The French paradox

The principles of French revolution tends to prevail

over the necessity to eliminate all forms of

discrimination against Women (although the CEDAW

convention was ratified by France in 1979)

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The French paradox

In contrast to the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights, sex is not taken into account as a factor of

discrimination in the French Constitution

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The long road to parity : The 1999 Constitutional Reform

In 1982, the Constitutional Council censured a law which

provided a quota 25% of women in legislative fonctions

Successive governments, fearing a new censure, gave up on

quotas until 1997, when Prime Minister Lionel Jospin

commited himself to reform the Constitution to register the

parity in it

The Constitutional law of July 8th 1999 changed Article 3 of

the Constitution to provide that « the law supports the

equal access of the women and the men to the electoral

mandates and elective functions »

Article 4 was amended to provide that political parties shall

contribute to the implementation of this principle

This reform enabled the promulgation of the law providing

for equal access of the women and the men to the electoral

mandates and elective functions on June 6, 2000.

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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)

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In 2008, a Constitutionnal reform is considered to modernize the

Vth Republic institutions.

To increase the political parity but also the professional equality, a

few changes have been made:

A paragraph is added to the Article 1 which provide now that the

Law « promote equal access 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 shall contribute to the implementation of the

principle set out in the second paragraph of article 1 as provided

for by statute. »

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The long road to parity: the 2008 Constitutionnal reform



Chronological milestones of the legislative evolution

for the Political Parity

1982 The constitutional Council censures a law which provided a quota of 25% of women in the lists of the local

elections considering that the principle of equality in front of the law in the article first “is opposed to any

division by categories of the voters and eligible”.

1999 The revision of June 23rd 1999 relating to the equality between the men and the women introduced in Article 3 of

the Constitution the principle according to which the law “supports the equal access of the women and the men

to the electoral mandates and elective functions. “ Article 4 of the Constitution specifies that the political parties

“contribute to the implementation of this principle set out in Article 3".

2000 June 6th 2000 the first law on the parity is promulgated. It constrained the political parties to introduce to an

equal number men and women and envisages a reserve on the budget of the parties which will not respect the

principle of parity during the candidate nomination for the legislative elections.

2007 The law of January 31st 2007 requires a strict alternation women/men in the composition of the municipal

electoral rolls) and introduces an obligation of parity into the regional and municipal executives. It increases the

financial penalty incurred by the parties which do not respect the parity of the nominations and constrained the

candidate with the cantonal elections to run nearby a deputy of the other sex.

2008 Law of February 26th 2008 facilitates the equal access of the women and the men to the mandate of General

Councillor.

2008 Constitutional law of July 23rd 2008 is modernizing the institutions of Ve Republique towards the parity in the

professional and social responsibilities. The article 1st of the Constitution is finalized by a subparagraph thus

written: “Statutes shall promote equal access by women and men to elective offices and posts as well as to

professional and social positions. »

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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

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Politics : comply or pay ?

Total of deduction on the grant of main political party for Parity in 2011

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Partis et

groupements

politiques ayant

présenté des

candidats dans au

moins 50

circonscriptions

Nombre total de

candidats

% de candidates Retenue sur la

dotation au titre de

la parité

Dotation Total

Union pour un

mouvement

populaire (UMP)

588 26% 3 922 512,8 30 136 113,9

Partis Socialiste (PS) 531 45,2 % 485 822,90 22 881 372,8

Modem 561 36,2% 420 538 3 563 689,5

Les Verts 580 50,3% 0 1 959 901,7

Front National (FN) 558 49,3% 0 1 744 403,2

Total 2 818 41,2% 4 828 873,7 60 285 481,1

Source: Observatoire de la Parité



Parity in the board rooms : encouraging results

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Source: Gouvernance & Structure, G & S, Monsieur Guy Le Péchon: [email protected]