Study on non-legislative initiatives for companies to promote gender ...

88 Gender equality initiatives
• to share experience and results of initiatives launched on the basis of the
charter, for example, by submitting contributions to the Minister for Gender
Equality’s theme page on women and management on the Internet.
The charter should be both flexible and binding for enterprises; therefore, every enterprise
has to set specific goals. Targets and the means to reach these targets are
formulated by the enterprise, in collaboration with the Department of Gender Equality,
and described in a baseline-report. The enterprise is expected to submit a report on the
progress of its activities every second year. Thus, the enterprises having signed the
charter are obliged to initiate programmes promoting more women in management and
to evaluate the measures set.
A regional initiative in Bourgogne in France resulted from EQUAL and addresses
various gender equality aspects. Several organisations took part in a reflection which
resulted in the elaboration of several charters: public administrations for employment,
career advice and training; universities; local authorities and employer organisations.
The French “Chartes régionales égalité et mixité professionelles” (regional
charters for gender equality and gender-mixed work) are regional networks of charters
aiming at promoting equality between women and men in the labour market as well as
gender-mixed work. By signing one of the charters, organisations become part of a
network which works in favour of gender equality. The regional charters have been
initiated by a non-profit organisation, Féminin Technique (FETE). FETE was founded in
1991 to promote gender equality on the labour market and in the workplace and to help
labour market actors to achieve this. One of the main axes of this objective is the
promotion of gender diversity in education, training and job positions.
The “Charte égalité et mixité professionnelle” was the outcome of an EQUAL project
and was launched in May 2005. FETE aims at involving all organisations having an
impact on career design and job searching: private corporations, trade unions, schools,
universities, job training organisations, career advice or counselling organisations,
public job centres, private temp agencies, local government authorities.
Before an organisation signs the Charter, FETE conducts an interview with the person
in charge of HR in order to make an account of actions which were settled by the
company so far. Commitments taken in the signed charter can be adapted to the
signing organisation. A specific model of charter was designed for trade unions in order
to address their specific issues. Organisations designed a particular text for their
charter with FETE as they were not satisfied with existing models of charters. Some of
them suppressed the engagement about work-life balance of employees which was
suggested in their model: they considered that work-life balance is not an issue which
must be addressed by employers.
Signing organisations may also conduct their own promotion actions about their signing
the charter. For example, the commitment of a city in favour of gender equality through
the charter was mentioned in the media as it signed the charter in a public and formal
context: the charter was signed at the end of the first “Techni’Femmes” 28 which took
place in the city with other signing organisations.
28
FETE organises “Techni’Femmes”, an event which targets women looking for a job or wishing to
change careers as well as female students. During this event, corporations from industrial sectors open
their doors to women so they can discover technical job positions which are traditionally held by men.