“If you stand in front of me, I’ll be able to kick you.” The little phrase is thrown by a MoDem deputy to his colleague Elodie Jacquier-Laforge, at the start of a group meeting. The deputy, vice-president of the National Assembly, widens her eyes, but responds straight away: “What is this redneck joke?” The exchange ends there. But it shows that in the corridors of power, in 2024, sexism has not disappeared. “I think I face it every day. These are thoughts about the way I dress, I do my hair… It often comes from a generation older than mine”continues this 45-year-old elected official from Isère.
Eighty years after the order of April 21, 1944 granting women the right to vote and to stand for election, equality between men and women is still not obvious. Even in a camp which has displayed it as the great cause of its two five-year terms. All the Macronist women interviewed by franceinfo nevertheless assure that the behavior no longer has much to do with what their elders may have suffered. “In the Assembly, they keep to themselves”assures Renaissance MP Sarah Tanzilli. Perhaps because the hemicycle has become more feminized, with 39% women elected in 2017 (compared to 27% in 2012), and 37% in 2022.
“Boys’ club” and “sorority gov”
He nevertheless persists “insidious sexism” , in the words of Elisabeth Borne, on RTL, March 8. “It’s sneaky, I’ve never been made a sexist joke, but the camaraderie between men remains present.” supports a former minister.
“These are meals that take place between men, little asides after the Council of Ministers where women are not included.”
A former ministerat franceinfo
This former member of the executive remembers finding herself, once on the bench during questions to the government, sitting between Gérald Darmanin and Eric Dupond-Moretti. “They were talking over me, I was transparent.” Another member of Elisabeth Borne’s government also attests to “clan meetings” between men “who laugh among themselves”. “It indifferently and annoys me at the same time”, she sighs. This atmosphere of boys’ club is not without political consequences. “This makes it easier for them to carry out cases together,” assures another ex-minister. “Women are still seen as intruders on the political scene and we make them understand”observes political scientist and sociologist Mariette Sineau, co-author of the work Women and the Republic.
To deal with this sidelining, female politicians imagine their own spaces. When she occupied Matignon, Elisabeth Borne organized a dinner between women ministers, to which her predecessor Edith Cresson was invited. “It wasn’t very natural, we don’t know how to do it”, remembers a participant. A WhatsApp loop called “gov sorority” also brought together women members of the executive.
Today, women members of the government meet for breakfasts, the first of which was initiated by the Minister of Labor and Health, Catherine Vautrin, on February 21. “The idea was to create a friendly moment, to introduce yourself”, explains the minister’s entourage. A second was organized, a month later, by Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the Minister of Sports. On the program for the ten ministers present: introduction to the Olympic Games. Another is planned for the end of April, at the invitation of Aurore Bergé, in charge of Equality between women and men.
Ironically, not all the guests participate in these meetings. “I take my children to school at that time! Otherwise, no problem, but at another time of the day”, comments government spokesperson, Prisca Thevenot. The MPs also organize dinners among themselves. “These are informal settings, more conducive to exchange, which allow us to cross-reference our feelings and better visualize certain masculine strategies”explains Elodie Jacquier-Laforge.
A persistent imbalance in firms
What these elected officials and ministers experience exists in the same way within ministerial offices. A former chief of staff also describes informal moments to which women were not invited.
“When you are chief of staff and you don’t have as many links as others with your male colleagues, you lose information. But information is power.”
A former chief of staffat franceinfo
At her level, “dircab” women – the most important position, after the minister – are very rare. Currently, there are only eight women in such a position, for 27 men. “It is infinitely harder to find dircab women for questions of personal life”, observes former Minister for European Affairs Nathalie Loiseau. Even at the highest level of the State, we find, as in the rest of society, inequalities in the sharing of domestic work.
Since the end of December 2023, a decree taken on the basis of the law of July 19, 2023 requires having at least 40% women or men in ministerial cabinets, before full parity expected for 2026. “It’s through quotas that we can make things happen”defends Renaissance MP Véronique Riotton, president of the delegation Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities. Even if no financial sanctions are provided for in the event of non-compliance, “it’s name and shame“that is to say a publication of the identity of the firms concerned with the aim of exposing them to criticism, specifies Guillaume Gouffier-Valente, Renaissance deputy and rapporteur of the law of July 2023.
“Gender stereotypes that persist”
Today, 43% of ministerial advisors are women. But this figure hides significant disparities between ministries and positions. The perimeters still seem gendered and the highest responsibilities mainly entrusted to men. Quite caricatured, the Minister of Defense has the most male advisors while the Minister in charge of Gender Equality has the most women.
“These are gender stereotypes that persist. We see it in the government, but also in the Assembly. We must continue to push so that women are in charge”insists Véronique Riotton. “We need to do this census to shake things up and watch out for false parity. We need to be ultra-vigilant”assures Prisca Thevenot. “I can only see that there is still a lot of work to be done in the offices”, supports Guillaume Gouffier-Valente. The MP recalls “that a decision is much better when it is taken in a mixed way”.
Questioned on this point, the Prime Minister’s services affirm that cabinets are encouraged to “ensure a balanced proposition of men and women” And “must be exemplary”. They recall having sent a circular requesting that “firms do not have less than 40% of people of the least represented sex”. “This incentive concerns all positions and parity at the level of cabinet directors is also encouraged. Exceptions to this principle are exceptional”we add again to Matignon.
Gabriel Attal’s government is certainly equal (18 women and 17 men), but here again, women are far from being in the majority in the most important positions. “It’s a facade of parity, which hides an asymmetry of powerobserves Mariette Sineau. No woman occupies a sovereign position and only 38% have a full ministry. There has been a regression compared to previous governments.”
The President of the Republic’s team is not immune to this imbalance. There are 58 men advising Emmanuel Macron, compared to 21 women. The only pole to have more women than men is the social pole.
“The president is surrounded by guysnotes a former advisor to the executive. We sometimes laughed about it, the women are on societal subjects and the men on the economy and the sovereign.” “He’s getting over it and he’s not setting an example either, just look at his teams at the Elysée,” agrees a member of the majority. The Elysée did not respond to our requests on this subject.
“The reference is men”
Elisabeth Borne had the leisure to embrace all subjects for 20 months at Matignon. After two Prime Ministers – Edouard Philippe and Jean Castex – Emmanuel Macron belatedly granted his own “wish” of 2017 to appoint a woman head of government. The former Prime Minister, who now sits in the Renaissance group in the Assembly, has still spoken little about her experience. But, on March 8, she wanted to tell – a little – this political environment still governed by “masculine codes”. “The reference is men”she insisted on RTL.
“There were all these little comments: ‘She’s cold, not nice, she only eats seeds…’. But if there were moments of tension between Matignon and the Elysée, it’s not because she eats seeds!”recalls a former advisor to the executive. “‘Authoritarian’, ‘techno’… If you give a man all the adjectives that were attributed to Borne, he becomes a hero!”, sighs another, who remembers phone calls during which the tenant of Matignon was the last one contacted, after a string of men. Elisabeth Borne was also surprised to see that only the names of men were circulating to replace her.
“[C’était] as if the commentators were saying to themselves: ‘We have just had a woman Prime Minister for twenty months, that’s it, we’re getting back to normal life, so the next one will be a man’.”
Elisabeth Borne, former Prime Ministerat RTL
Since the departure of Elisabeth Borne, the executives of the majority, with the exception of the President of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, are nothing more than men. “The meeting at the Elysée on the deficit [le 20 mars] is quite symptomatic: there were only guys, as if finances were too important for women to take care of.”sighs a member of the majority.
Valérie Hayer “is constantly bullied”
The designation of Valérie Hayer as head of Renaissance’s list for the European elections provokes an ironic comment from a member of the presidential camp: “A woman, and a young one at that… We’re not very used to that in macronie!” But the attitude of the majority executives towards their candidate – presented in the press as a default choice – raises eyebrows internally.
“They don’t let her be herself! She is constantly bullied. When she came to a group meeting, she was flanked by Olivier Dussopt and Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade on the platform…”, annoys a Renaissance executive. Which reminds MEP Nathalie Loiseau of her own experience. “A whole bunch of men wondered why it had been me and not themremembers Renaissance’s head of the list in the 2019 European elections. I felt it suddenly, someone comes to tell you that you should change your hairstyle, your glasses…”
For sociologist Marinette Sineau, “There remain in politics macho reflexes specific to French culture and which date back to royalty, where Salic law prevented women from governing, unlike other European countries.” In the majority, the subject arouses some signs of annoyance. “Some people tell me: ‘That’s enough, we’ve worked a lot on the subject’, but the effort to be made is still considerable!” says Guillaume Gouffier-Valente. “We believe in !”, smiles Elodie Jacquier-Laforge.