Since 2017, the Ministry of Culture has implemented an active policy to combat sex and gender inequalities with concrete and proactive actions. These include a tool that has been in place since 2013: the Observatory on Gender Equality in Culture and Communication, coordinated by the Department of Studies, Foresight, Statistics and Documentation (DEPS) with the support of the mission Diversity-Equality-Prevention of discrimination.
Published annually on International Women’s Day, it analyses gender inequalities with more than 700 indicators and 90 tables on the share of women in all sectors that make up the cultural field. From school benches to entry into working life, to the recognition of talents and access to positions of responsibility, this Observatory makes it possible to report on the path towards equality. This new edition highlights the fact that women are better represented in bodies of cultural life, but still highlights significant disparities across disciplines.
Majority women in schools but minority in employment and lower paid
This is a constant since the establishment of this Observatory: the preponderance of female students in the hundred or so higher education institutions placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture. Today, they represent 63% of students, more than in higher education in general (56%). Women are particularly represented in the heritage (80%) and plastic arts (70%) sectors. In general, over the past five years, all sectors have become more feminized – with the exception of heritage, which is already ahead of the game – particularly audiovisual cinema, where the share of female students rose from 51% in 2017-2018 to 56% in 2022-2023. At the end of school, access to the first job remains the same by sex with an almost identical integration rate for women (92%) and for men (94%), according to the annual survey conducted in 2023 among graduates in 2019.
The gap is in the professional world, where women remain slightly minority (46% of the workforce in 2020 against 49% for the entire population). The share of women is growing strongly in certain fields such as architecture, where it has almost doubled in twenty years. Progress is also visible in the entertainment sector as generations entered the labour market with a higher proportion of girls in schools. Finally, they remain the majority among art teachers and in the fields of translation, documentation and conservation.
On the other hand, wage gaps remain unfavourable for women (-20% in all cultural sectors), particularly architecture (-32%). For performing arts, differences in the perception of copyright are of the order of 41% against women. Only art teachers pay women better (+5%).
More and more women in positions of responsibility, the private sector stagnates
With only 15% of CEOs in the top 100 companies in the cultural sector in terms of turnover in 2020, the private sector does less well than the public, where, for example, three out of five women preside over public broadcasting companies. Parity is achieved in services under national jurisdiction, at the head of the drac and almost at the Ministry of Culture (45-55%).
However, there are still inequalities with on the one hand the performing arts which has only one woman for eight men at the helm of public institutions on January 1, 2024, and on the other 65% of women at the helm of national museums. In the structures supported by the Ministry of Culture, the presence of women in management positions remains a minority (38%) and there is, for example, no woman at the head of a national music creation centre. Finally, the share of women in higher education institutions is rising to 44%.
Women’s works remain less visible
In 2023-2024, women were less programmed in the arts sector: only 40% of performances in the performing arts sector and 29% of some 1,900 opera performances are staged by a woman during the 2023-2024 season. Women are also in the minority in musical direction (12%) and composition (7%). In the visual arts, acquisitions of works by the National Fund (60% in 2022 against 52% in 2021) and the Regional Funds (54%) of contemporary art are predominantly female and parity has been exceeded in some of the largest art exhibitions.
On the cinema side, women feature film directors remain a minority (30%) turning to short films. On television, we can see fewer women during peak hours (36%) while parity is almost reached on the airwaves, with 45% female votes in the morning, at high audiences.
Creation aids often lower for women
In general, the support granted to women for creation remains lower than for men. In the field of cinema, in 2021, of the 58 projects benefiting from the advance on receipts of the National Film and Moving Image Centre, 28% were made by women, the highest inequality in four years.
The situation is more egalitarian in the field of literature with, according to the National Book Centre, 59% of aid granted to female authors for support for creative writing and literary translation by editorial field, even if the average amount allocated is lower than that of men by 29%. The areas for which the differences are most pronounced are theatre with The average amount of aid granted to women is 30% lower than that of men in 2023.
Fewer women awarded than men
Julia Ducournau, Palme d'or in 2021, and Justine Triet, consecrated last year, reflect little the low presence of award-winning directors since the creation of the Cannes Film Festival since until then, only a film by a director had obtained the supreme distinction and, Of all the awards, only 5% went to women. For the César, since 1976, only 8% of the winning films have been directed by women.
On the music side, the situation is also unfavourable with 10% of Victoire de la musique winners for the best album since 1985, a figure that is constantly increasing with 25% of winners just for the period 2020-2023. Classical music and jazz are doing better, with 36% and 26% of women awarded respectively.
For theatre, women represent, from 2020 to 2023, 44% of the authors awarded the Molière Award for Director. Over-represented in schools (60% of students), women photographers represent 47% of the recipients of the emblematic awards in 2023. The book also rewards women well with 54% of winners of the major literary awards from 2020 to 2023. The juries and jury presidencies of emblematic prizes respect parity for the first time since the creation of the Observatory in 2013.
Key figures of the Observatory 2024
- 42% of women head of public institutions of culture
- 50% women directors of cultural affairs (DRAC)
- 65% of women directors of the 41 national museums
- 60% women in the presidency of public broadcasting companies
- 42% of women head of national drama centres
- 62% of women in the exhibition halls of national interest
- 15% of women directors of the 100 largest cultural companies in France
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