On Thursday, September 8^th, 2016 the French Ministry for Families, Children, and Women’s Rights launched the joint Action & Mobilisation Plan against Sexism, presented by the Minister Laurence Rossignol. 30 associations and institutions are supporting Laurence Rossignol’s initiative, such as Cercle Inter’Elles, headed by WIL member Catherine Ladousse, Grandes Ecoles au Féminin or Social Builder to name a few. This key initiative against daily sexism is also supported by Thaima Samman, President of WIL Europe, along with personalities from the cultural sector, and economic and political elites such as WIL Member Delphine Ernotte Cunci, President of France Télévisions, Sarah Ourahmoune, Olympic vice champion of boxing, Julie Gayet, actress, and Axel Kahn, doctor and essayist, to mention but a few.

The plan will run for 6 months until March 8^th, 2017, which is the International Women’s Day.  During these months, the objective is to encourage men and women to speak up against daily sexism, and to share initiatives to fight it with an hashtag: #SexismePasNotreGenre.

French journalist and public figure Audrey Pulvar moderated the two evening panels. The first one gathered speakers from the associative world: Emmanuelle Laroque (Social Builder), Clarisse Reille (Grandes Ecoles au Féminin), Sabine Salmon (Femmes Solidaires), Annie Guilberteau (CNIDFF), Marie Françoise Potereau (Femix’Sport) and Laurence Beldowski (Toutes Femmes, Toutes Communicantes) who shared with the guests their insights on sexism in universities, in the workplace, in sports and in the medias. The second panel had Anne Le Ny (actress), Dominique Beshenard (actor), Dr. Axel Kahn (Scholar), Dr. Ghada Hatem Gantzer and Mercedes Erra (CEO of Havas Worldwide) who discussed about their perception of sexism and how it should be fought.

During the event the audience was also presented with key figures and main outcomes from the CSA research study: “Perception of equality between men and women in France”.

To conclude the evening session, the Minister Laurence Rossignol took the stage to thank the audience and all the ambassadors, and to explain the program’s outlines for the next 6 months. She particularly stressed out the major role that social media will play in this campaign against sexism.  

Please support this fundamental gender equality initiative by sharing your views on sexism by using #SexismePasNotreGenre!