On the occasion of the International Women’s Rights Day, Audrey Azoulay, Minister of Culture and Communication, brought together women in Rue de Valois who are advancing art and culture on a daily basis throughout France.
The Minister wanted to greet, through some fifty women present, from all over France and all the professions, all those who contribute, sometimes anonymously, to making French culture a force for progress, social cohesion and outreach for our country.
The Minister recalled the commitment of the Ministry of Culture and Communication in favour of equality between women and men, notably through the law on the freedom of creation, architecture and heritage which provides for “equality between women and men in all areas of artistic creation” or the introduction of child care assistance for intermittent artists and technicians under the Fonds pour l’emploi pérenne dans le spectacle.
On this occasion, the Minister discussed several concrete implementations, stemming from the roadmap adopted last December at the Ministerial Committee on Gender Equality in Culture and Communication:
am Circular to encourage support for artistic projects initiated by women
As committed in December 2016, the Minister today signed a circular, effective immediately and to be distributed to all Regional Directors of Cultural Affairs.. It calls for concrete and visible efforts to be made to better support artistic projects initiated by women, to advance towards parity in the creative sector.
- Two meetings for training and entry of women into working life
It is also necessary to take action as soon as women are trained and enter working life, because although the majority of female students are in higher education institutions, they are still under-represented in the cultural professions.
- A seminar of the higher education schools of the ministry, entitled «Pour un accès des femmes à un métiers de la culture», will be held on March 30 at the Philharmonie to better identify these issues and consider concrete responses.
- The Minister also confirmed that at the next “Entreprendre dans la culture” forum, which will take place from May 22 to 24 at the Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, a round table will be dedicated to “women’s entrepreneurship”. It will allow the expression of testimonies of women entrepreneurs. It will be a question of considering the obstacles to female entrepreneurship, of letting women know how to do it, but also of allowing them to dare to do it.
am Monitoring gender equality in culture and communication
For the fifth consecutive year, this observatory, published today by the Ministry, offers an accurate and valuable overview of the presence of women in the cultural field and the expected progress, especially in the field of live entertainment where women remain too little present on the stage and in the management of institutions. This year, in particular, this study illustrates strong progress in the presence of women at the head of cultural structures, on boards of directors, commissions and juries.
- Large national collection around the place des femmes in November 2017
The Minister finally announced a major national collection around the place of women in our society since the beginning of the XXth will be launched next November in all of France. This collection, the contours of which have been specified thanks to a scientific committee led by the historian Françoise Thébaud, focused on the work, will allow the release of private archives of feminist movements, of women, around great figures but also of singular life paths.
For the record, the roadmap adopted on December 15 at the Ministerial Committee on Gender Equality in Culture and Communication, which covers all areas of the department, also provides for:
- A provision (now passed and applicable) in the Equality and Citizenship Act that imposes parity in the commissions of public institutions that award grants, grants, opinions, approvals, as well as in committees placed with decentralized departments;
- Within the framework of the Equal Citizenship Act, the Government has introduced an amendment (adopted since) extending the CSA’s missions in terms of controlling the image of women in advertising messages;
- On public service channels, commitments are made in favour of the place of experts. France Télévisions is providing a strong response, as an example, by anticipating that the share of experts called on the air will necessarily reach parity in 2020;
- The Ministry is strongly committed to gender equality in its internal practices and the Minister confirms her desire to present the Ministry’s application for the "Equality" label, which will be submitted this March.
The Minister invited all guests to share a buffet prepared by the Nantes association «Le Goût des Autres, cuisines without borders», which employ foreign women to facilitate the integration of families.