CRIS Scientific Seminar 2024-2025

Friday, September 13th 2024, 11:30 am
Sciences Po, Room K011 (1, St-Thomas-d'Aquin)

Women in the Inner Circle in France and the United States
from an approach based on networks of places

Catherine Comet

Professeure, Université Paris 8, CRESPPA-CSU

Since the early 2000s, more women have been appointed to boards at the request of investors and, in some countries such as France, under the pressure of quotas. What authority do women appointed in this context have? Do they sit on boards simply to balance the pressure to increase the number of female directors, or do they exert real influence? And if so, what kind of influence?

The data relate to male and female directors of large companies in France and the United States (the 100 largest listed companies in France in 2008 and 2014, and the 250 in the United States in 2011), looking not at their respective authority on boards but at their external influence, particularly through their presence in think tanks.

The comparison between France and the United States serves two purposes. Firstly, it helps to justify the think tank approach by showing that positions linked to these organizations are among the most central in corporate networks in both countries. It also provides an opportunity to compare the role of female directors in the United States, where there are no quotas (soft law), and in France, where there are quotas imposed by the 2011 Copé-Zimmermann law (hard law).

The analyses show no significant difference in the propensity of female directors to be interlockers or reform entrepreneurs. The differences are more subtle. They are expressed, on the one hand, in slightly different profiles and, on the other, in the type of think tanks in which male and female directors are involved. Men are concentrated in the most business-oriented, very liberal and/or specialized in economic issues, while women seem to prefer more generalist think tanks and those linked to international relations and European issues.

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To find out more: Personal webpage (CRESPPA)