Business management : this irreducible glass ceiling

the latest edition of The Observatory Skema of the feminization of the companies confirm that yet the link between feminization and economic performance and the stock market.

good news and bad news. For its new edition published on 2 march, the Observatory Skema of the feminization of enterprises, created in 2007 by professor Michel Ferrary, blows hot and cold. Each year, on the basis of the annual reports, it examines the feminization of the governance bodies of the sixty largest French companies (Cac 40 + 20). Balance sheet the year 2019.

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let's Start with the cold : in the year 2019, no woman held a position of CEO in the Cac-40+20. They were only two presidents of board of directors Sophie Bellon at Sodexo and Anne-Marie Couderc at Air France-KLM - and two general guidelines - Isabelle Kocher at Engie and Méka Brunel in Gecina. Four women out of 120 offices of the president and/or chief executive officer : "women remain excluded from the Olympus's governance," says Michel Ferrary. In the 60 largest companies in france, women accounted for last year that 18% of the members of the committees of management, a proportion, however, higher than in 2018 (14%).

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the Other bad news : the feminization of boards of directors, obtained through the law Copé-Zimmermann, has not helped to improve the feminization of the executive committees. "There is no effect of run-off, says Michel Ferrary, contrary to what was hoped to be. The members of the boards of directors do not have influence on the way in which the director-general compose the executive committee. Hence, the importance of quotas to promote women's advancement in the comex."

>>> READ ALSO : Feminization of the principals of the companies : no quotas, no results !

As seen in the four companies of the sample have a woman chairperson of the board or executive director ? All have a proportion of women on the executive committee largely above average : 37% at Sodexo, 30% for Gecina and more than 27% at Air France-KLM and at Engie. It is known that at Sodexo, Gecina and Engie this feminization is the result of a proactive policy. But the vagaries of the life of the companies that make this fragile balance, as evidenced by the recent ouster of Isabelle Kocher to the direction of Engie. In early 2020, the CAC 40 has lost its only woman DG.

The flagship index of the Paris will win, however this year at least a president of the council, in the person of Angeles Garcia-Poveda, who was succeeded by the 1st July next to Gilles Schnepp for the presidency of Legrand. "The gender of the person was not a criterion as such," explained Gilles Schnepp daily Les Echos. But the fact that the specialist in electrical infrastructure account for 50% of women among its directors, has undoubtedly facilitated such a choice. Legrand is identified by Michel Ferrary business like "amazon" : the percentage of women in the executive committee (25%) is higher than the percentage of women in coaching (23%).

more and more companies are "female"

The Observatory Skema ranks companies in four categories : to the side of the amazons, there is the machismo (the percentage of women in leadership is higher than the average but the percentage of women in the executive committee is less than the average, or even zero), the male (the low representation of women in c ommittee executive reflects the low percentage of women in the pool that constitutes the framework) and the female (a high percentage of women on the executive committee is a reflection of the high percentage of women in the framework and with a stated policy of promotion of professional women). Good news in 2019 : the number of companies that say "female", able both to recruit women and promote them to positions of leadership, has doubled from 6 to 12. Welcome the arrival in this category of Publicis, EssilorLuxottica, Natixis Pernod-Ricard, Sanofi, Carrefour and Société Générale.

>>> READ ALSO : gender Diversity at the top, the convicted businesses to act quickly

If the average of women in the overall regulation of companies in the Cac 40+20 remained stable in 2019 compared to 2018, Michel Ferrary observes a polarization of sexual growing companies for the past ten years : to be clear, the gap between women's enterprises, which have difficulties in recruiting men, and the business men who have difficulties to recruit women. "Companies do not control all the variables, stresses the researcher. The rate of women in the engineering schools or the preference of the girls, even engineers, to work at L'oréal, rather than at Airbus, it eludes them. The public authorities can not just put pressure on the employers, it is also important to work on education." In some countries, such as South Korea or the United States, universities unisex have been created to enable women to assert their leadership without it being immediately confiscated by the men.

An outperformance of the most feminized

The digits in 2019 from the Observatory, Skema has again confirmed the link between féminisation of the managerial and economic performance : when the operating margin of the 60 firms in the sample amounted on average to 17.5%, one of the 10 companies whose management is the most feminized reached 25.4% and that of the 10 companies whose management is the least feminized to fall to 10.5%... Same observation on the stock market performance : the Gender Equality Index composed of 10 companies whose management is the most mixed (45% to 65% of women) outperforms the Cac 40 over ten years : +294% growth against +43.2%, and for the flagship index of the Paris. The Male Index (calculated for the first time this year, it comprises the 10 companies whose management is least mixed, between 12% and 20%) displayed over the same period, a growth of 108%, a performance almost three times lower !

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inequality between men and women persist among the young professionals, 67% of women entrepreneurs earn less than 1500 euros gender Diversity at the top : companies convicted to act quickly,

Conclusion : the mix is a real lever of performance. "If there were companies with very few men in the coaching, there appear to be very certainly that they under-perform, like businesses where there are very few women in coaching," says Michel Ferrary. According to the researcher, only the diversity allows an increase in the recruitment pool and thus the likelihood of hiring the best talent. It is also a token of creativity and openness, and therefore financial success.

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