Green light from the Senate to quotas for management positions for better parity between men and women in companies

"Restoring equality is not granting them a favor (...) it is repairing an injustice that nothing can justify", affirmed Elisabeth Moreno, Minister responsible for Equality between women and men.

Supported by MP Marie-Pierre Rixain, the text was adopted unanimously by the votes cast last May by the National Assembly. Deputies and Senators will now try to agree on a common text, failing which the Assembly will have the last word.

The senators adopted the proposal to establish a quota of representation of each sex among senior executives and members of governing bodies of at least one thousand employees. It forecasts a proportion of at least 30% of women in 2027, and 40% in 2030.

In 2030, "within a" maximum "period of two years", they will have to comply with the rule of 40% of senior executives, under penalty of "applying a financial penalty", capped at 1% of the mass salary.

The senators also approved the obligation for companies to publish each year on the site of the Ministry of Labor the gender representation gaps, but giving them a period of five years after publication of the law.

The left tried unsuccessfully to lower the threshold of employees from which companies would be concerned or to shorten the deadlines.

This text is presented ten years after the adoption of the Copé-Zimmermann law, which imposed 40% of women on the boards of directors of companies.

For the rapporteur Laurence Garnier (LR), if this feminization "has had very positive effects, it has not led to significant progress in the distribution of positions of responsibility within companies".

"The quotas worked but did not have the expected runoff", added the centrist president of the Delegation for Women's Rights, Annick Billon. "Today there are only 25% of women on the management committees" of the 120 largest listed companies, Ms. Moreno said.

The text includes "diversity objectives" in the support to companies of the public bank BpiFrance. The Senate adopted an amendment by Ms. Billon aimed at requiring the presence of at least 40% of women on Bpifrance's investment committees by 2027.

It also aims to "fight against gender bias" in professional choices, thanks to an "equality index" in higher education establishments and more diversity of juries.

It provides for "the obligation" to pay wages or social benefits into a bank account "of which the employee is the holder or co-holder".

The bill is also aimed at mothers raising their children alone, through training and reserved crèche places.

The Senate amended the article aimed at facilitating access to teleworking for women at the end of pregnancy, providing that the employer would be entitled to refuse the request if the functions occupied cannot be carried out remotely.

"Disappointed", the left abstained on this text.