Paris (AFP)
Secretary of State for Gender Equality Marlène Schiappa wants to "multiply by five (the) penalties" inflicted on parties that do not respect parity in parliamentary elections, she said in an interview published Monday evening by Le Figaro.
If "the situation has improved," Ms. Schiappa notes, "the problem is that political parties still prefer to pay fines". "I propose that we multiply by five these penalties, they are really dissuasive," she adds.
The law of 4 August 2014 for the real equality between women and men had already doubled the penalties imposed on the parties in case of non-joint candidatures in the legislative elections.
The Republicans have been fined € 1.79 million in 2018 for having presented 278 candidates and only 182 candidates in the legislative elections of the previous year.
Referring to the bill for the economic empowerment of women, announced Friday by Emmanuel Macron on the eve of the G7, Ms. Schiappa said that this text "should end in 2020 and will be the subject of a large consultation".
Prepared with the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, this law should notably "facilitate" the "journey (women) to work", for example those "who resume an activity after a period dedicated to maternity" and " suffer from a hole of several years in their CV ", she notes.
The Secretary of State also considers "very worrying" the decline in the number of women working in the innovation trades.
"Their numbers are falling sharply" according to studies, but "a country can not deprive itself of half of the potential innovations! It is a question of performance, not just of justice," said Ms. Schiappa, who will "entrust a mission to Chiara Corazza ", Executive Director of the Women's Forum.
The Secretary of State in "expects effective recommendations to improve the position of women in future professions such as data, science or engineering". "We are also working to create a fund dedicated to innovations led by women," she adds.
© 2019 AFP