Women's Progression on French Corporate Board: Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of the SBF 120 Index, 2000-2009

Women on corporate boards have been the subject of an abundant literature (theoretical and empirical) in many countries, mainly in the United States, in the United Kingdom and in Scandinavian countries. Main results show an average slow progress and relatively low number of women on corporate boards. There are significant differences between countries. Overall, women hold about 10% of the seats of boards.To our knowledge, there are no study-examining women on corporate boards in France. The article describes how women managed to break through what the author so-called the “glass ceiling” by examining empirically their progress on the boards of the 120 largest firms in France (SBF 120). Similarly, we investigate their role as internal and external directors and as CEO.Overall, our results show a significant increase in the number of women on corporate boards. In 2009, 66% of the SBF 120 large-cap companies have at least one board seat filled by a woman (against 40% in 2000). Women hold nearly 10% of the seats. However, a closer analysis reveals that the number of women serving as internal director and as CEO of a company remain low (around 2%), corroborating the Anglo-Saxon studies in this matter. There are no signs predicting any progress in this number, which even tends to regress.We analyze women’s progression on corporate board in light of various theoretical explanations, across two levels: board (Social identity, and Social Network and Social Cohesion theories) and firm (Resource Dependency).