TROPHÉE DES FEMMES DIRIGEANTES / COTE

Femmes Chefs d’Entreprises

“To start with, feeling legitimate”

In this international organisation, they are actively involved in pushing the boundaries. We sat down with Marielle Walicki, Femmes Chefs d’Entreprises (FCE) South Region President, and Paule Vera, Jury President for the COTE Trophy for women leaders.

FCE may be locally based but the network has branches all across France and around the world.
P.V. The network was founded in the aftermath of the Second World War, and now has a presence in 170 countries. We have eight delegations on the Côte d’Azur, from Saint-Raphaël to Monaco. The association came into being when women acquired the right to vote, bearing in mind that up until 1 965 they were not allowed to open a bank account without their husband's consent. These rights are ultimately very recent, and in terms of salaries, we are still far from pay equality.
M.W. Our members are executives or shareholders in their companies, and we also have some sympathisers. Since we are a non-political structure, we focus our efforts on mandates, taking responsibility in economic life and bodies such as the ICC, Chambers of Trade and Crafts, URSAFF, the commercial courts and industrial tribunals.

The Minister for the Economy has made gender equality one of his priorities but how can it be pushed forward?
M.W. Bruno Lemaire explained that women are insufficiently represented, and there needs to be legislation. It has to go through the National Assembly because, unfortunately, these things don’t happen naturally. I remember that when quotas were introduced at the turn of the millennium, I found it almost degrading, but how could it be otherwise? When you see countries like Sweden and Iceland where there is real parity, it makes you think. But the mentality of the newer generations is changing.

What are your association’s priority actions?
M.W. First of all, we are working on mentalities, this impostor syndrome which has pervaded education for generations and led women to believe they were not legitimate. It is often said that they earn less because they have children, when in fact they already earn 30 % less within 5 years of graduation. At issue is knowing how to sell themselves when they are being hired or daring to ask for a raise. Every month, we organise a training course on technical aspects or personal development. And this year we also have as major events the COTE Trophies and our national congress in October on the theme: "Common sense, the essence of business”.
P.V. The association helps business leaders overcome their isolation. It is a solidarity network, and when one of our members relocates, she can switch to another local delegation. We also open the network to third parties twice a year, for our big summer event and Christmas.