Equalité for All – France Considers Boardroom Quotas

By Elizabeth Harrin (London)

When I worked for a global financial services firm in Paris, I constantly found myself explaining to my French colleagues that both my degrees were in literature but in the UK I was still employable. French business is the bastion of people (read: men from wealthy backgrounds) who have gone to the right Grandes Ecoles and studied the right business course. I was odd – I didn’t have a business qualification, but the business district of La Défense had still welcomed me. It was a small sign that the French approach to work is changing – and in December it got a big push in the right direction with the launch of new legislation that would see women take half the seats in boardrooms in five years.

Currently, women only make up 10.5% of boards in the CAC 40 – the French stock market index – and only 8% of board members in the top 500 companies are women.

It’s a long way from the European average, and campaigners for the new law have cited Scandinavia as a role model for how quotas should be managed. Norway started the northern European revolution, by insisting that boards were made up of at least 40% women back in 2003. Comply or close were the options given to business leaders, and while it was a controversial law and a difficult time, board membership is now 44.2% female. Sweden (with 22% female board members) and Finland (17%) have also made huge inroads in moving towards a better gender balance at the top of organisations.

Marie-Jo Zimmermann, President of La Délégation aux droits des femmes, the government committee for equal rights between men and women, pointed out that Spain has already adopted quotas, in her report to the National Assembly last month. The Spanish model will see 40% of board positions held by women by 2015. Zimmerman also cited The Netherlands, where quotas for companies with more than 250 employees are also under discussion. Belgium is holding its own discussions, with the aim of having boards with 30% women within 7 years. If companies don’t comply, they will be blocked from recruiting men to boards – an extreme form of positive discrimination.

Debating French Board Quotas for Women

If the changes get through both French houses of parliament, the quotas will come into force gradually. Within 18 months businesses would have a woman in every one in five board positions. Within four years this would increase to 40%, with the remaining 10% recruited in the final year.

It’s a controversial law, but one that Zimmerman believes is necessary to make progress. “The progression of women on boards is insignificant,” she told Le Figaro. “At the current rate we would have to wait 100 years to get to 10% women. Quotas can only be fixed by law.”

Opponents to the law include Minister for Work Xavier Darcos, who has said that it will be impossible to have quotas that can apply equally to all industries – from construction to cosmetics.

Others have pointed out that board membership might be a step too far – why not start with getting more women on to executive committees, or just into senior management jobs? Zimmerman believes that there is work to do in this arena too, and is in favour of having executive committees with a proportion of women that reflects that of the rest of the company. For the moment, however, the focus is on boards.

“Quotas for boards is only the first step,” she says, “and they are not an isolated measure.” Zimmerman believes that if an efficient policy for professional equality is put in place in business, women will be able to more easily access senior management roles.

Industry Views on Quotas

The proposed law already has some industry supporters. BNP Paribas has committed to increasing the amount of women in senior management positions to 20% by 2012, in comparison to the 15% it has today. The bank has also pledged to recruit or promote at least 100 senior women in three years.

“We should have a human resource policy attractive to women,” says Baudoin Prot, Director General of BNP Paribas. “It’s a proof of modernity. But these are also heavy changes. I don’t want to name women [to Board positions] because diversity is in fashion.”

“It is not a question of choosing a bad candidate over a good candidate,” said Brigitte Grésy, General Inspector at the French Social Affairs ministry, at an event to launch a report on women’s representation in corporate governing bodies in Paris recently. “It is a matter of choosing a woman among candidates with comparable competencies.”

Agnes Touraine, President of Act 111 management consultancy and who herself has held chairmanships and CEO positions, was also at the event. “We only need 70 women on boards to reach 20 percent,” she said. “Those women are out there, you just have to go looking for them!”