On the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day, the Ministry of Culture publishes the 2018 edition of the Observatory on Gender Equality on 8 March.
Established each year with the close collaboration of the central administration services, the institutions under the supervision of the Ministry and the organizations of collective management of copyright and professional rights, this report provides a numerical picture of the distribution of women and men in the various activities and professions of culture and communication.
Share of women in management positions, on boards of directors, aid award commissions and advisory bodies, examination and competition boards, presence of women in artistic programming and in the media, women’s share of consecration (literary prizes, music victories, César, national orders, etc.), differences in terms of training, employment and earnings are presented in evolution for the sixth consecutive year.
While equality between women and men was consecrated as a “great national cause” of the five-year period and the Ministry of Culture was the first to receive, in October 2017, the Equality label awarded by Afnor, this 2018 edition shows both the progress of equality in employment settings, notably thanks to the legislative framework implemented since 2012, and the persistence of inequalities against women, particularly in terms of pay, access to positions of responsibility, the means of production and artistic consecration. Women are still only 36% in senior positions in the Ministry of Culture, 31% in managing certified cultural facilities, only 10% in the 100 largest French cultural companies, and the average pay gap is 18% against women in cultural enterprises.
Objectified in figures, these inequalities show the way forward, with increased determination and measurable objectives, to strive for real equality, guaranteeing a more just society. The 2018-2022 Equality roadmap presented by Françoise Nyssen, Minister of Culture, to the Equality Ministerial Committee on 7 February 2018 includes strong commitments that, through their ambition and voluntarism, The aim is to significantly reduce the gaps highlighted here and to move from equality in law to equality in practice.