Women on boards in France: with a quota law under review, companies step up their recruiting.

• Author: L'Helias, Sophie
• Position: BOARD DIVERSITY

FRENCH COMPANIES languished in the bottom tier of European board gender diversity surveys, year after year, with barely 10% of women on boards.

Inspired by Norway, France's parliament proposed to impose a 40% gender quota on company boards by 2016, with an obligation to reach 20% by 2013. Noncomplying companies would see their board elections nullified, dramatic though less drastic than Norway's threat to liquidate companies.

While there is consensus on the need to close the board gender gap, there is no consensus on quotas. The regulatory initiative came as a shock to business, which lost credibility after making repeated empty promises to address the issue. Moreover, the financial crisis tarnished business' image and reduced its political leverage.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

With the law still under review, and in what some perceive as a move to avoid regulation, French companies began recruiting women on their boards en masse during the 2010 proxy season, with a 50% increase in women directors of France's largest companies in the CAC 40, according to Proxinvest (www.proxinvest.fr). Leading the pack are Axa, BNP-Paribas, Bouygues, Michelin, PPR, and Vivendi, who now count more than 25% of women directors on their boards.

...