In 2005, male over-representation was a little more marked within the cultural occupations than in the whole of the occupied working population (58% against 54%).
However, the situation reveals greater disparities. Certain professions have a strong male domination: literary authors (73%), architects (76%) and photographers (74%). Others are mainly female dominated, such as technical management of documentation and conservation (87%), and arts professors (58%).
A similar situation is observed about salaried employees in the cultural sector: in 2009, women represent only 40% of salaried employees in the performing arts sector, but they are particularly present in the press where they represent 53% of employees, and also in book publishing (63%). On the contrary, broadcasting remains male dominated (42% of women).
Gender equality is one of the priorities of the current French government formed in 2012: for the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic, of 34 government members, half are women. A Haut Conseil à l’égalité entre les femmes et les hommes (High Council for equality between women and men) was set up in 2013, to take back the missions of the Observatory of Parity created in 1995 by Jacques Chirac, and of the Commission nationale contre les violences envers les femmes and the Commission sur l’image des femmes dans les médias. The High Council is attached to the Prime Minister, to follow up and dynamise the policies on women’s rights and on the disparities between women and men in political, economic, cultural and social domains. In 2013 the Ministry of Culture installed an observatory on gender equality in culture and communication, which produces an annual report on the matter http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr/Politiques-ministerielles/Egalite-entre-femmes-et-hommes/L-Observatoire. A specific taskforce also prepares the application of the Ministry to the national label Diversité et Égalité that is assigned by the national organisation for standardisation (AFNOR).
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