17%: in 2019, this is the proportion of employed women who have managerial status, compared to 4% in 1982. This proportion of managers reaches 21.6% among men, according to INSEE. While companies and public authorities continue to highlight their initiatives – particularly around March 8, International Women’s Day – to highlight their initiatives, can we say that gender equality is on the right track?
This is not the opinion of sociologist Haude Rivoal, in her contribution to the scientific mediation project “What do we know about work? ” of Interdisciplinary laboratory for public policy evaluation broadcast in collaboration with Presses de Sciences Po on the Employment channel of the Lemonde.fr website.
This sociologist affirms that the company remains fundamentally masculine, which means not “that it is run by men”but that “corporate practices favor men”.
To establish this observation, the author calls on the work of several researchers, highlighting the structural reasons for this slowness. The accession of more female employees to positions of responsibility is the tree in disguise, because it does not change the way in which organizations operate, structural wage inequalities and gender-based violence. The qualities expected to become a leader have changed little, i.e. the same self-confidence, and the same unfailing investment – which implies shedding domestic work, and therefore excludes a majority of women.
A social marker
When they are not criticized for overly masculine behavior, it happens that senior women executives are on the contrary valued for management. ” different “ : “softer, more conciliatory, more horizontal”… Or, paradoxically, the opposite of what allows you to climb the ladder. By focusing on these very schematic character traits, or by simply encouraging them to better negotiate their salary, some employers relegate women’s progression to an individual problem.
Haude Rivoal explains that this is a cultural problem, and that the “virility” in business has been able to adapt to changes in society to maintain its privileges. By sometimes excessively asserting an inclusiveness and feminism which is not verified in the company’s figures, some male business leaders even hope to protect their position, the researcher observed during interviews. Sexism or the fight against it is more of a social marker than a real commitment. In the way of managing, the fear of impotence remains valued, as does competition between men.
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