Gender and career development — France
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This comparative study examines the issue of gender and career development and explores the continuing barriers to achieving equality of opportunity in this area in France.
1. Changing concepts of careers
Research suggests that current career patterns are still strongly influenced by traditional concepts of careers. Traditional concepts are often described as hierarchical models, with continuous service and regular promotion progress up through a series of levels within an organisation, or between organisations. However, new forms of employment are likely to lead to a greater diversification of career paths for both men and women.
a) Is the traditional career model appropriate to your country? How have women’s careers complied with this traditional model?
The dominant work contract in the French workplace is the open term contract of employment on a full-time basis (the open term contract of employment is referred to in French as a CDI – Contrat à durée indéterminée). This model is dominant both in the employment of men and women. The rate of fixed term contracts of employment in France (which are referred to as CDDs – Contrat à durée déterminée, and temp contracts...) is 12.9% and the rate of CDIs is 87.1%. In addition, full-time work involves over 50% of the population.
If the term ‘dominant’ model is defined as the most widespread and most sought after model by employees, then the stable CDI work model on a full-time basis throughout an employee’s career appears to be the dominant model. However, the situation between male and female employees is far from homogeneous. Although for several decades France has shown, following the example of other European (EU) countries, a significant convergence between female employment and male employment in terms of activity rates and employment rates, there nevertheless exist differences in the gender employment models which are even more noticeable in terms of working hours.
The overall employment rate on a part-time basis is 16.9%. However, there are significant differences between genders: the part-time employment rate for women is 30.3% whereas it represents 5.5 % for men (the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, 2004 (Institut national des statistiques et des études économiques, INSEE)). There less and less difference between the activity rates and employment rates of men and women. In 2005, the activity rate for women was 63.8% and the rate for men was 74.5% (Insee, Employment survey), and in 2004 the employment rate of women was 57.4% compared with 68.9 % for men. In addition, the activity rate of women is in constant progress at all ages of their active life. Thus, the current insertion process of young men and women in the workplace has shown a tendency to equalise, at least in terms of their first entry into the workplace. Furthermore, it must be pointed out that it is when their family responsibilities are the greatest that the activity rate of women has increased the most. In addition, the activity rate of 50-year-old women or more has also progressed due to the generations that stemmed from the ‘baby boom’, who have higher levels of education and who are more active than their predecessors.
But beyond these convergences, the differences between men and women can be represented in terms of work time, in terms of the quality of the jobs that they are offered, in terms of risk of unemployment and loss of social position, and in terms of salary levels and career development. The end result is that men and women’s career paths do not resemble each other: women do not have the same job as men (part-time versus full-time), do not have the same career development, the same opportunities to progress and the same salaries.
b) Please provide research evidence on whether the traditional concept of a career in your country is changing or whether it remains largely entrenched. Are traditional careers changing as new forms of employment are introduced? If there have been recent changes, what types of change are occurring?
However, the progress in the activity of women in the labour market has highlighted an increase in part-time work which involved 30% of them in 2003, compared to 13% in 1973. The proportion and impact of part time work varies depending on the age of the women and their levels of qualification. In France, part-time work for women is concentrated at a time when they have children; by and large it corresponds to jobs requiring few qualifications, and thus jobs with low salaries and which offer few vocational training possibilities. Finally, these jobs are often associated with working hours and working rhythms which are divided into several shifts.
Part-time work thus penalises women threefold: first of all with regard to income, as part-time work implies a part-time salary – and thereafter a part-time pension – thus reproducing the economic dependency of women. Part-time work is an obstacle to the optimum progression of women’s careers. Finally, it does not often favour the reconciliation between a woman’s professional and family life.
2. Data on segregation and mobility
a) Please provide details of employment for men and women by industrial sector and full and part time work for 2005 and also for men and women by socio-economic classification 2005.
The structuring of the jobs held by working men and women is still very acute today. These differences can be seen both in the distribution of men and women per sectors of economic activity and in their social and professional profiles. The tertiary sector has approximately an 85% concentration of the female working population.
In the same way, men and women do not hold the same job: nearly half of the women are employees whereas more than a third of the men are workers.
| Women | Men | Total | Percentage of women | % of the female working population | |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 276 | 674 | 950 | 29.1 | 2.4 |
| Agricultural industries | 262 | 416 | 678 | 38.7 | 2.3 |
| Consumer goods industries | 320 | 371 | 691 | 46.3 | 2.8 |
| Car industry | 52 | 281 | 333 | 15.6 | 0.5 |
| Capital goods industries | 163 | 657 | 820 | 19.9 | 1.4 |
| Intermediate goods industries | 334 | 1 056 | 1 390 | 24.0 | 2.9 |
| Energy | 44 | 190 | 234 | 18.9 | 0.4 |
| Construction | 142 | 1 455 | 1 597 | 8.9 | 1.2 |
| Commerce and repairs | 1 545 | 1 747 | 3 292 | 46.9 | 13.5 |
| Transport | 251 | 825 | 1 076 | 23.3 | 2.2 |
| Financial activities | 409 | 325 | 734 | 55.7 | 3.6 |
| Real estate activities | 195 | 152 | 347 | 56.1 | 1.7 |
| Services to companies | 1 292 | 1 923 | 3 215 | 40.2 | 11.3 |
| Services to private individuals | 1 298 | 829 | 2 127 | 61.0 | 11.4 |
| Education, health, social work | 3 475 | 1 227 | 4 702 | 73.9 | 30.4 |
| Authorities | 1 335 | 1 328 | 2 663 | 50.1 | 11.7 |
| Non-defined activity | 33 | 38 | 71 | 46.5 | 0.3 |
| Total | 11 425 | 13 496 | 24 921 | 45.8 | 100.0 |
Note: Results shown as an annual average
Scope: Mainland France, working population aged 15 and over.
Source: Insee, employment surveys
| Women | Men | Total | Percentage of women | % of the female working population | |
| Farmers | 196 | 455 | 651 | 30.1 | 1.7 |
| Self-employed tradesmen | 170 | 557 | 727 | 23.4 | 1.5 |
| Shopkeepers and comparable categories | 244 | 409 | 653 | 37.3 | 2.1 |
| Company managers of 10 employees or more | 21 | 104 | 125 | 16.6 | 0.2 |
| Executives and superior intellectual professions | 1 317 | 2 343 | 3 660 | 36.0 | 11.5 |
| Including: Members of the liberal professions | 132 | 214 | 346 | 38.1 | 1.2 |
| Executives in the civil service | 139 | 231 | 370 | 37.5 | 1.2 |
| Professors, scientific professions | 375 | 342 | 717 | 52.3 | 3.3 |
| Professions involved with informing, arts and shows | 106 | 126 | 232 | 45.7 | 0.9 |
| Administrative executives and salespeople in companies | 404 | 619 | 1 023 | 39.5 | 3.5 |
| Company engineers and technical executives | 161 | 811 | 972 | 16.5 | 1.4 |
| Middle management professions | 2 781 | 2 964 | 5 745 | 48.4 | 24.3 |
| Including: Teachers and comparable categories | 551 | 268 | 819 | 67,3 | 4,8 |
| Health and social work middle management professions | 865 | 244 | 1 109 | 78.0 | 7.6 |
| Clergy, monk/nun | 1 | 8 | 9 | 8.7 | 0,0 |
| Middle management administrative professions in the civil service | 259 | 209 | 468 | 55.3 | 2.3 |
| Middle management administrative professions and salespeople in companies | 914 | 802 | 1 716 | 53.3 | 8.0 |
| Technicians | 132 | 929 | 1 061 | 12.4 | 1.2 |
| Foremen, supervisory management | 59 | 504 | 563 | 10.5 | 0.5 |
| Employees | 5 542 | 1 690 | 7 232 | 76.6 | 48.5 |
| including: Civil servants and employees of the civil service | 1 667 | 492 | 2 159 | 77.2 | 14.6 |
| Police officers and military personnel | 54 | 441 | 495 | 10.9 | 0.5 |
| Administrative employees in companies | 1 437 | 298 | 1 735 | 82.8 | 12.6 |
| Shop assistants | 839 | 241 | 1 080 | 77.7 | 7.3 |
| Personnel involved in direct services to private individuals | 1 545 | 218 | 1 763 | 87.7 | 13.5 |
| Workers | 1 082 | 4 890 | 5 972 | 18.1 | 9.5 |
| Non-defined social and professional category | 76 | 81 | 157 | 48.2 | 0.7 |
| Total | 11 425 | 13 496 | 24 921 | 45.8 | 100.0 |
Note: Results shown as an annual average
Scope: Mainland France, working population aged 15 and over.
Source: Insee, employment surveys
As has been previously pointed out, women represent the major share of the part-time working population: in 2005 part-time jobs still involved 30% of the female working population in comparison with 5.5% for men.
| Women | Men | Total | |||
| Full-time work | Part-time work | Full-time work | Part-time work | ||
| Non-employees | 661 | 197 | 1 766 | 94 | 2 719 |
| Employees | 7 248 | 3 318 | 10 961 | 675 | 22 202 |
| Temporary workers | 131 | 35 | 360 | 22 | 548 |
| Apprentices | 80 | 26 | 194 | 35 | 335 |
| Fixed term contracts of employment | 591 | 406 | 582 | 134 | 1 713 |
| Public sector | 203 | 140 | 139 | 42 | 523 |
| Private sector | 388 | 266 | 443 | 93 | 1 190 |
| Trainees and subsidized employment contracts (1) | 112 | 135 | 116 | 72 | 434 |
| Public sector | 32 | 64 | 29 | 20 | 144 |
| Private sector | 80 | 72 | 87 | 52 | 290 |
| Open term contracts of employment and other contracts | 6 335 | 2 717 | 9 710 | 411 | 19 172 |
| Total | 7 909 | 3 516 | 12 727 | 769 | 24 921 |
(1) Subsidized employment contracts ('professionalization' contracts, contracts which help in finding employment, contracts for the future, the Youth Employment Programme [emplois jeunes], etc.) and vocational training periods which are classified as employment under the terms of the criteria of the BIT [French abbreviation for International Employment Agency: ILO].
Scope: Mainland France, working population aged 15 and over.
Source: Insee, employment surveys
b) Please provide details of any survey evidence which shows the percentage of women in management and senior management positions (including the number of women who are Board Directors) by industrial sector.
Due to their school results, women have greater access to qualified professions and the ‘executive’ category is becoming more and more feminine as in 2002 women represented 29% of executives in companies and the civil service (Insee, Employment survey 2002). However, despite this huge investment of women in higher education, gender inequalities persist in particular with regard to access to the higher levels of the professional and organizational hierarchies. The scarcity of women at the top rungs of companies, in the civil service, in universities, in the National scientific research centres (for example: Centre national de recherches scientifiques, CNRS) and at decision-making levels in France has been widely emphasized by a great number of studies.
Women only represent 7% of the managing executives of companies whilst they represent 31% of the administrative and commercial executives and they only occupy 12% of the superior positions within the civil service whilst they represent 54% of the executives and superior professions within the State’s civil service. In French universities, women only represent 18% of the professors compared with 37% of the lecturers (Laufer J., 2005, The construction of the ‘glass ceiling’ effect: the case of female executives with potential, Work and Employment, April-June).
3. Data on training and qualifications
a) In the Gender Perspectives Annual Review 2000, data was collected on the education levels of men and women across the member states. For member states that were covered in the 2000 annual review, we would like to update these figures. For new member states we would like to collect equivalent figures. Please refer to the 2000 annual review for more details
The differences in school results between girls and boys have been observed for a certain number of years in France. This is relatively evident in the following table. For the younger generations, the difference is present at baccalaureate level (i.e. high school leaving exam) and then subsequently widens with graduates from higher education.
Concerning the baccalaureate, girls obtain better marks than boys: irrespective of the streams, girls succeed better than boys (81% against 75.8%) Insee, Women and Men – A look at parity, 2004).
| 25-34 year-olds | 35-44 year-olds | 45-54 year-olds | 55-64 year-olds | |||||
| Women | Men | Women | Men | Women | Men | Women | Men | |
| No diploma or CEP (Certificate of Vocational Education) | 12.7 | 14.4 | 21.3 | 21.7 | 32.1 | 28.6 | 44.4 | 37.7 |
| Only a BEPC (First cycle educational diploma) | 4.3 | 5.5 | 8.3 | 6.4 | 10.8 | 7.7 | 9.0 | 5.8 |
| CAP (vocational training certificate), BEP (certificate of vocational proficiency) or equivalent | 17.2 | 23.3 | 27.4 | 36.3 | 23.3 | 34.6 | 21.0 | 28.0 |
| Baccalaureate or Technical certificate | 21.9 | 21.4 | 16.9 | 11.8 | 14.4 | 11.6 | 11.0 | 11.5 |
| Diploma obtained after 2 years of study after the baccalaureate | 20.6 | 16.8 | 13.2 | 10.4 | 10.4 | 7.2 | 7.2 | 5.5 |
| Higher education diploma | 23.3 | 18.6 | 12.9 | 13.5 | 8.9 | 10.3 | 7.4 | 11.5 |
| % of students who have obtained the baccalaureate or higher diploma | 65.8 | 56.8 | 43.0 | 35.7 | 33.7 | 29.1 | 25.6 | 28.5 |
Scope: Mainland France, individuals aged from 25 to 64.
Source: Insee, Employment surveys.
b) Please provide information on the amount and duration of training provided by employers for men and women employees in 2005, by part time and full time work.
Access to continuing professional training within the company progressed both for women and for men appreciably in the 90s. In 2003, 24% of female employees had followed a training course which was financed or organized by their employer during the previous eighteen months compared to 25% of male employees (Insee, Women and Men – A look at parity, 2004). This equality in the training offered nevertheless hides important disparities according to the characteristics of the positions held.
And as women do not hold the same jobs as men and do not work in the same sectors of activity, differences come to light. The size of the company has an important influence on the chances of following a training course or not: in small companies (less than 10 employees), one employee out of 10 followed a training course. On the contrary, employees of bigger companies are able to benefit more often from training courses. The size of the company has an influence on the differences between men and women: in small entities, a higher share of women followed a training course compared to men (18% against 13% in companies with between 10 and 49 employees): on the other hand, in the big companies, they did not follow a training course as often as men (30% against 34% for companies with 500 employees or more). Part-time work, which is essentially female-dominated, acts as a disadvantage in access to training: women who work part-time have less access to training than full-time employees. However, when the situation is analysed more subtly, women who work full-time followed a training course as often as men who work full-time. On the other hand, for part-time employees, women have the advantage in attending training courses (18% against 13% for men).
The difference in access to training between men and women can be explained to a large extent by the significant proportion of women who work part-time.
| Women | Men | |
| Private Sector | 20.3 | 23.4 |
| Public sector | 31 | 32.8 |
| Total | 23.8 | 25.9 |
Source: Insee, Women and Men – A look at parity, 2004.
4. The social partners and gender and careers
a) What are the views and opinions of the social partners in your country with regard to:
i) gender segregation;
ii) training and qualifications to promote equal career opportunities amongst men and women;
iii) tackling gender discrimination in careers; and
iv) encouraging the adoption of policies on gender and careers at company level?
The opinion shared by the majority of labour unions in France is to emphasize that the passage from theoretical gender equality at the workplace to real equality has yet to be achieved. The advances obtained in the taking into consideration of these principles (gender equality with regard to salaries, career development …) in the company are numerous but remain insufficient so far and the process is far from having reached a successful conclusion. The General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale du travail, CGT) insists on the need for the labour unions to question themselves on the place of women and equality in their functioning and action methods. The French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT), on the other hand emphasizes the fact that the construction of professional equality entails above all gender co-existence of jobs, an improvement in the working organization and working conditions, a more direct access to all jobs, the improvement of vocational training and by courses of action so as to ensure that maternity and parenthood are no longer a handicap. Finally, the General Confederation of Labour – Force ouvrière (Confédération générale du travail – Force ouvrière, CGT-FO) emphasizes the fact that the responsibility of the social partners is to guarantee gender co-existence and professional equality at work.
b) What policies have the social partners developed to promote career opportunities for women within their own organisations (internal)?
First of all, it must be emphasized that there exists a certain number of laws and agreements in France which are supported by the European directives concerning gender equality at the workplace: in particular the law of 13 July 1983 on professional equality (Roudy law) but especially the law of 9 May 2001 (Génisson law) which renders the negotiation of equality together with the drafting of a report on equality compulsory or even the interprofessional national agreement of March 2004 which was signed by all the social partners regarding gender equality and gender co-existence. This agreement reinforced the existing legislative measures by directing the emphasis on the principles and methods. It thus insisted on certain points: maternity should not impede mothers’ careers and to ensure this on the one hand a contact should be maintained with the company during the maternity leave and on the other hand the company should provide for a specific personal meeting with the employee before and after the leave, unjustified differences in salaries between men and women should be corrected, stereotypes on the work of women should be fought against and access to training should be the same for all men and women. This agreement also aimed at guiding career choices towards flourishing jobs, at ensuring the balance between women and men in recruitments and career developments and at reducing salary differences between men and women. Although this text was signed unanimously by all of the labour unions, certain nevertheless highlighted the fact that it contained neither quantified objectives nor penalties and that its aim was merely to provide the framework for future branch and company negotiations.
Finally within the framework of the Equal programme, an initial assessment of the signed agreements with regard to professional equality was drawn up, both from the point of view of their objectives and from the point of view of their content. This assessment, which is still provisional, highlighted the lack of quantified objectives together with the absence of adjustment measures within the companies.
5. National Centre view
Please provide a commentary on key developments in gender and careers in your country. In particular please give your assessment of the impact of legislation on promoting gender equality in careers and outline the biggest barriers to promoting gender equality in careers.
It would appear that gender equality at the workplace is still far from being attained in France. Despite the fact that the figures regarding men and women would appear to be coming in line in terms of employment rates or activity rates, their situations in terms of career developments, salary, relation to working time would on the contrary seem to be very dissimilar.
Finally, the fact that this relation to different working time according to gender is maintained has in fact lead to the spreading of new employment standards, in particular part-time work. These standards contribute not only in reproducing the discriminations in a new format, but also in segmenting the workplace.
Insee, Employment surveys 2002, 2003, 2005 (Internet site).
Laufer J. (2005), “The construction of the ‘glass ceiling’ effect: the case of female executives with potential”, Work and Employment, April-June.
Insee, Women and Men - A look at parity, 2004.
Laufer J., Silvera R. (2006), Agreements on professional equality following the law of 9 May 2001: initial analytical elements, Timetis, 133 pages.
Christèle Meilland, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales - IRES