The CAC 40 currently has only one “Pedegher”, Sophie Bellon, at the head of the collective catering giant Sodexo. But why don’t companies snap up the CVs of senior executives? They would find nothing but advantages: stronger operational profitability and better performance in terms of social and environmental responsibility. Impossible to conclude otherwise by closing the 2023 edition of the Skema Observatory of the feminization of companies.
Its creator, Michel Ferrary, professor of management at the University of Geneva and researcher affiliated with Skema Business School, has been scrutinizing the annual reports of CAC 40 companies for fifteen years. With a triple obsession: to assess the place of women in the states -majors, measure their progression in the hierarchy and gauge their influence on the performance of their companies.
In companies where there are more women, the average salary is not lower
Michel Ferrary, professor of management
According to the latest version of this study, the ten groups with the most female management show an operating profitability 48% higher than that of companies with the most male management. Their results are also more brilliant in terms of controlling their societal (+61%) and environmental (+53%) impact. “And it’s not because women are paid less than men, points out Professor Ferrary. In companies where they are most numerous, the average salary is not lower. »
Christine Lagarde, who was the first woman to head the International Monetary Fund before becoming President of the European Central Bank, was therefore right to assert, ten years following the global financial crash of 2008, that “If Lehman had been Sisters rather than Brothers, the world [serait] maybe very different today”.
The CAC 40, the flagship index of the Paris Stock Exchange, currently has only one “Pédégère”
The idea, however, struggles to impose itself in the staffs. Witness the long (and slow) march of women towards boards of directors, supervisory boards, executive committees (Comex) and management committees (Codirs). At the top of companies, the female presence, like the air, is brutally rare.
Sophie Bellon manages the collective catering giant Sodexo
The CAC 40, the flagship index of the Paris Stock Exchange, today only has one “Pédégère”, Sophie Bellon, at the head of the collective catering giant Sodexo. Two presidents, of the board of directors (Angeles Garcia-Poveda at the specialist in electrical infrastructure Legrand) and of supervision (Barbara Dalibard, at Michelin). And three general managers: Estelle Brachlianoff (Veolia), Christel Heydemann (Orange) and Catherine MacGregor (Engie). The pioneer in this function was only appointed in 2006, that is to say yesterday: the American Patricia Russo, at Alcatel Lucent. It took ten years for a second to join her, Isabelle Kocher, at Engie, forced to resign before the end of her mandate in 2020.
Two legislative interventions were necessary to accelerate the feminization of governing bodies. The Coppé-Zimmermann law of 2011, which imposed 40% women on boards – they are even 45% today. Then the Rixain law of December 24, 2021, which created an “obligation of balanced representation” of both sexes in management positions in large companies. Objective: 30% of women (or men) at least in 2026 and 40% the following year.
Although it is a little depressing to admit it, the quotas have been relevant
Laurence Monnet-Vernier, former Xerox and Manpower executive
For Laurence Monnet-Vernier, former leader of Xerox and Manpower, professor at HEC Paris and head of the “Diversity and Inclusion” program, criticism of legal obligations is unfounded: “The quotas have been relevant, even if it is a bit depressing to admit it. The changes, already slow, would have been much slower without their implementation. But we should not rely solely on these measures to go further. Reconsidering the way of working and promoting the emergence of “role models” is essential. »
Would the fear of the gendarme have its effect? The CAC 40 Comex already claim a 23% feminization rate: “The Copé-Zimmermann law has produced a ripple effectsays Paul Jaeger, partner at the Russell-Reynolds headhunting firm. For several years, our clients, when they entrust us with recruitment assignments, have expressly asked us to introduce them to senior executives. »
The business world is becoming gendered
To the chagrin of men looking for a place in the sun. “We see that those, faced with obstructed prospects for progression, no longer hesitate to change employers, or even to become entrepreneurs”, emphasizes Paul Jaeger. In order not to let these talents slip away, the big companies have found a trick: instead of replacing men with women in their Comex, they have added chairs around the table to accommodate more female leaders – their number has increased from 102 to 129 last year, that of their colleagues from 411 to 412.
Achieving the objectives set will take time, because to have more women at the top, the process begins at school
Patrice Caine, CEO of Thales
But, unlike boards of directors, which welcome “qualified personalities” coming from outside for mandates limited in time, the Comex select the best managers without any time limit. “Within the former, decisions are collegial, emphasizes Patrice Caine, CEO of Thales (four women out of fifteen members of the Comex). It is the opposite in the Comex, where the responsibilities are individual. Achieving the objectives set will take time, because to have more women at the top, the process begins at school. »
At L’Oréal, where HRD Jean-Claude Le Grand began to put in place tools to promote inclusion and diversity twenty-three years ago, feminization at the top requires building pools from the start, by ensuring gender equality at the recruitment stage, then at each stage of the career to encourage promotions: “Women expect to be promoted because they deserve it, not because they are women. »
A few “diversity champions” are role models
Some companies balk. With their headquarters located abroad, Stellantis, ArcelorMittal and Airbus are not required to apply French legislation. Result: their boards of directors do not respect the rule of 40%. Perhaps not for long (see box). In companies qualified as “machos” by the Skema Observatory, women are totally absent from the executive committee (ArcelorMittal, Bouygues, EssilorLuxottica and Stellantis), or can be counted on the fingers of one hand: only one at Publicis, STMicroelectronics and Vinci.
Conversely, some “diversity champions” are role models: Capgemini (eight women), Schneider Electric (seven), BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, L’Oréal and Saint-Gobain (six). At BNP Paribas, parity is assumed and strictly respected: upon joining the group, the 50-50 rule applies, with the identification and support of talent, so that an equal proportion of men and women are then found at all levels of the group, up to the body that brings together the first 500 managers, then at the Comex.
Men also come up once morest this ceiling in companies where women are much better represented on the executive committee than in the executive population.
Between the “machos” and the others, the thickness of the glass ceiling varies. Professor Ferrary measures this thanks to the difference between the rate of feminization of the executive population, a natural breeding ground for managers, and that of the Comex. The price « citron » returns to EssilorLuxottica with an inequality index of 51.7. The calculation is simple: 51.7% of women in management and zero on the executive committee. Air Liquide wins the award « orange » : 2.43, with a feminized Comex at 28.57%, for management at 31%.
Men also come up once morest this ceiling in companies where women are much better represented on the executive committee than in the executive population. As at Dassault Systèmes, where they occupy 38.46% of Comex seats, while only one in five managers is a woman. This index of inequality in terms of professional promotion even reaches 25 at Eurofins Scientific and Unibail-Rodamco.
“Sexual bipolarization of the CAC 40”
The Skema Observatory observes “a form of sexual bipolarization of the CAC 40 which is accentuated over the years”. On the one hand, companies “feminine” such as Hermès and L’Oréal, where the proportion of women in the workforce and in management is clearly above average. On the other, groups “masculine”where it is the reverse. “This situation can end up causing problems in recruiting the under-represented sex”, says Professor Ferrary. Diversity is not for tomorrow.
