The document summarizes the experience of gender quotas in leadership positions in France. It discusses France's long road to establishing quotas, from the first failed attempts in the 1980s to the current laws requiring 40% representation of each gender on boards of large companies by 2017. It also outlines some of the debates around quotas in France regarding equality versus merit-based selection. Finally, it provides data showing politics is slowly increasing the proportion of female candidates to avoid funding reductions, and that boardroom representation has encouragingly improved but still has progress to make to reach the 2017 targets.

1. 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
The experience of France
By Valérie Tandeau de Marsac
Professor at EDHEC

2. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
 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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3. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
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

4. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
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5. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
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.

6. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
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

7. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
Our recommendations
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8. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
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 »

9. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
 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

10. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
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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11. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
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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12. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
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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13. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
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. 13

14. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
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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15. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
 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

16. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
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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17. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
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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18. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
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

19. Conference on female quota in leadership positions
The experience of France
Parity in the board rooms : encouraging results
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Source: Gouvernance & Structure, G & S, Monsieur Guy Le Péchon: guy.le-pechon@m4x.org