On the occasion of March 8, International Women’s Rights Day, the DRAC gathered in a document the main actions it carries out internally and in the policies it implements on the territory of Ile-de-France, to reduce inequalities between women and men.

 

Editorial

The "International Women’s Rights Day", inspired by the workers' struggles of the early 20the  century and demands for women’s right to vote and better working conditions, was initiated by activist Clara Zetkin in 1911. March 8 is an opportunity to take stock of the struggles and struggles against inequalities between women and men, to measure progress as well as points of fragility and even setbacks. After the adoption of the Veil Law, Simone de Beauvoir recalled in a visionary way: "It will only take a political, economic or religious crisis for women’s rights to be called into question. These rights are never acquired". And indeed, no one can ignore the attacks on women and their rights around the world, whether it be the crimes committed against women and children in Ukraine, the decline of the right to abortion in the States-United, or enslavement of women in many countries. When women’s voices are unleashed, as is the case today around the world, they are astounded by their scale, revealing in the open the sexual and sexist violence and harassment they face on a daily basis. On March 8, let us recall that the DRAC Île-de-France has long been involved in this fight, the AFNOR certification since 2017 recognizing this collective commitment. The road to equal rights is still long: it mobilizes us all today: it will require our full commitment and increased vigilance tomorrow.

Laurent ROTURIER, Regional Director DRAC Île-de-France

 

A place for women in culture that is improving... but a glass ceiling that remains

The reports submitted by Queen Prat to the Ministry of Culture in 2006 and 2009 pointed to the extent of inequalities affecting women in the world of culture, with cultural institutions almost exclusively led by men (92% of theatres, 89% of musical institutions...). The situation has progressed in 15 years, but without reaching parity. Queen Prat herself talks about a persistent glass ceiling in her Précis de féminisme à l'usage du monde de la culture published in 2021. The most recent figures, whether they come from the High Equality Council, the HF association or the Syndeac, show that women are in the majority in artistic formations, but in the minority in positions of responsibility or among programmed artists. Only one-third of the performers in subsidized theatres are women, and that number drops to 1 in 5 in music venues.

In Île-de-France, towards a change of era

The commitments of the Ministry of Culture must make it possible to catch up in the structures under its jurisdiction, whether in terms of appointments, agreements or rebalancing of the means allocated to women. In Île-de-France, the DRAC has worked with its partners to renew the directions of certified venues by aiming for parity: the recent appointments of Pauline Bayle to the Montreuil Theatre, Julie Deliquet to the Gérard-Philipe Theatre in Saint-Denis, Armelle Vernier at Théâtre 71 in Malakoff, Séverine Bouisset at the Théâtre des Gémeaux in Sceaux, Sandra Neveut at the Briqueterie in Vitry-sur-Seine, Marion Fouilland-Bousquet at the Ferme du Buisson in Seine-et-Marne, and at the beginning of the year Claire Dupont at the Théâtre de la Bastille, embody this change of era and inscribe this desire for equality for the creation of Ile-de-France. Of the 16 national stages and national drama centres in Paris, half are now run by women, as well as the two centres for choreographic development in Paris and Vitry-sur-Seine. The same priority was given to rebalancing the resources allocated to companies. Of the 80 new requests for agreements from theatre companies and associated arts submitted to the DRAC, 9 new companies have been signed this year, 6 of which are run by women and 3 by women/men. In the choreographic field, parity is also at the rendezvous, with more than half of the companies supported by the DRAC that are led by women (project aids and agreements). Finally, in the field of visual arts, more than half of the individual aids to creation are allocated to visual artists.

The "equality" roadmap, a reference document for the services of the Ministry of Culture

In 2017, the Ministry of Culture adopted its first "equality" roadmap. Covering three years and regularly updated, this roadmap sets out the framework for the intervention of departmental services and the main priorities, with specific objectives that affect both recruitment, career and training of officers, appointments at the head of labeled structures, the fight against sexual and sexist violence and harassment, equality in artistic and cultural teaching and practice, the promotion of women and the diversity of professions, etc. Supported by the Minister, this roadmap is monitored and implemented by the Diversity-Equality Mission of the Ministry of Culture.

The DRAC Île-de-France, certified by AFNOR, has an ambitious action plan

As the first ministry to benefit from the double AFNOR "equality and diversity" label in 2017, the Ministry of Culture was able to count on several volunteers to integrate the scope of the audited services: the DRAC Île-de-France was one of the bridgeheads. The DRAC has developed the necessary internal tools for labelling, including a comparative situation report integrated into the social report, an inventory of the risks of discrimination, a survey of discrimination perception, and an action plan that allowed us to initiate a real internal dynamic. In 2022, the Ministry of Culture benefited from the renewal of this double labelling for four years. The DRAC’s strategy is based on six axes broken down into 12 operational actions that affect both internal procedures and territorial policies. In terms of governance, the "equality" priority is carried out by the Regional Director and the Deputy Regional Director with the support of the Chief of Staff (equality and diversity reference) and the Deputy Secretary General (responsible for the prevention of discrimination). An internal steering committee, made up of management and voluntary staff, meets twice a year to monitor the implementation of this priority and to give its thoughts. The subject is also regularly discussed in DRAC CODIR meetings with all heads and heads of service, and in social dialogue bodies. Finally, the DRAC participates in the network of “equality” referees of the state services in Île-de-France (RÉGALIF) under the aegis of the Regional Directorate for Women’s Rights and Equality (DRDFE).

Combating sexual and gender-based violence and harassment (HSV)

Every week in France, three femicides are registered and 1,800 women are victims of rape or attempted rape. HSV has emerged as a central topic in recent years as a result of the #MeToo movement, which has revealed systemic violence in society, particularly in the world of film, music, theatre and art education. They are at the heart of the department’s equality roadmap. Internally, all agents of the Ministry of Culture, its public institutions and national higher schools have access to a cell of reporting, listening and accompaniment for victims or witnesses of discrimination, whether the facts arise in the professional context or in the family sphere (anonymous toll-free number: 0801 90 59 10, ministry code 1959). Since November 25, 2021, the performing arts structures supported by the Ministry of Culture—and thus by the DRAC in the Ile-de-France region—have also committed to fight against HSV as part of the specifications that bind them to the State. The aid paid by the DRAC is conditional on five commitments that must be made by the structures in terms of prevention, reporting, training of supervisors, awareness-raising of teams and evaluation of the actions carried out.

Support for several associative projects in Paris

Since 2021, the DRAC has taken the necessary decisions to establish a specific budget to support projects dealing with professional equality between women and men and sexual and sexist violence and harassment in culture (in parallel with grants for creation, EAC or cultural economy to projects which sometimes integrate these gender or gender dimensions). Under this specific policy, the DRAC was able to support the association HF Île-de-France for the organization of "Journées du Matrimoine" and travelling exhibitions in schools, notably the one entitled «Tu joue bien pour une fille» who promotes the music professions among young girls; as well as the association "Les Femmes s'en mêlent" organizing a festival with a 100% female board that offers for two years in the margin of thisA professional forum on violence against women, entitled “Women Engage”, has resulted in a toolkit for professionals. The DRAC also participated in the organization of a cycle of readings/performances and round tables on VHSS proposed by the association "Le Fil" at the Théâtre de la Boutonnière in Paris and in the creation of the show "Voix de femmes" in 2022, programmed in particular in Saint-LaurentDenis and the ENS Paris-Saclay campus. She also took part in the photo contest "Objectif Femmes" open exclusively to professional women photographers in 2023. As part of its pro-cinema policy, the DRAC supports the Créteil International Women’s Film Festival, which will open its 45e March 24 to April 2, 2023.

The matrimoine: repairing the forgetfulness of history

The consideration of women in the field of heritage is one of the strong concerns of the DRAC, which exercises sovereign missions in terms of historical monuments or archaeology. The history of art, written almost exclusively by men, has often ignored the essential contribution of women. It is one of the virtues of the "Journées du Matrimoine", worn by HF Île-de-France and supported by the DRAC during the "Journées européennes du patrimoine" in September, to reveal the contribution of women to our heritage heritage. In the field of museums, the DRAC pays particular attention to the houses and workshops of women artists through the appellation "Maisons des Illustres". The DRAC also supports singular projects such as Héloïse Luzzati’s "Un temps pour Elles" festival aimed at rehabilitating female composers and allowing their works to be known and performed worldwide.

A culture of shared and participatory equality

Among the actions that the DRAC carries internally, the participatory and collaborative angle is privileged in order to make all the agents adhere to this "culture of equality". On March 8, 2022, after a call for proposals and a vote by the agents, all of the DRAC’s meeting rooms and common areas were named after a female figure in the arts or heritage who had ties to the region. Among the 70 nominees, Nadia and Lili Boulanger, Jeanne Laurent, Rosa Bonheur, Rose Valland, Marguerite Huré, Charlotte Delbo, Charlotte Perriand and Alice Guy won. The rooms now bear their names, with a biography at the entrance of each one. DRAC experts are also regularly called upon to illustrate, through testimonies in the form of written or video interviews, the major national events of the Ministry of Culture, and their expertise chosen in priority to respond to requests from the press, so that the DRAC’s professions are seen as “feminine” and stimulate vocations among young girls, especially in heritage professions.

Titles and functions are (also) feminine

The famous "midpoint" is not accepted in administrative documents. Writing, on the other hand, can be "inclusive" in many other ways: the DRAC makes it a point of honour to systematically feminize titles and functions in its correspondence as well as in its internal and external notes: we speak of a leader, a director, a reeve, a mayor, a senator, a member of Parliament, a Conservative, a technician, etc. Since French grammar does not have the neutral, the masculine is used when a feminization of the name is not possible. In addition, the use of epic terms is promoted as much as possible, and DRAC agents are regularly invited to refer to the Guide pratique pour une communication publique sans stereotypes de sexe published by the High Council for Equality in French Documentation.

Prospects: a ramp-up in 2023

The DRAC continues to implement its action plan in 2023 and is developing new actions and reflections:

  • Increase in funding for associative projects promoting professional equality between women and men in culture and the fight against violence against women in the cultural field;
  • Development of an objectives agreement with the Regional Directorate for Women’s Rights and Equality (DRDFE);
  • Agreement of the association HF IDF to structure its action over the long term, in particular on the "matrimoine" strand;
  • Commitment of labeled structures in the fight against HSV;
  • Reflection on the observation of gender inequalities in culture in Île-de-France;
  • Training of DRAC supervisors and officers
Illustration by Victoria Roussel

 

To illustrate this document, the DRAC called on Victoria Roussel, an illustrator who lives and works in Paris. Fascinated by nature, his work transcribes this unconditional love of life. From his imagination come colorful landscapes, fantastic characters who often dialogue and meet. These unusual combinations allowed him to illustrate on many supports and with clients such as SNCF, Perrier, Les Échos, Actes Sud and many others. Navigating since the beginning of her studies in the sector of culture, the issues of feminist struggles and issues of parity are crucial for her. For this illustration, the artist wanted to go beyond the mediatized professions and represent all facets and the richness of cultural careers. She wanted to design physical and field jobs, such as archaeologists and managers, but also decision-making jobs such as site managers and elected officials, all in a place where they can be ambitious, in a plentiful and caring environment.

DRAC committed to women’s rights (brochure to download)

© illustration Victoria Roussel