Today’s rhythm will take half a century for half -business management positions in France being covered by women, according to a study released today by the country’s central bank.

In 2023, according to Bank of France experts, women represented 52% of the population and 49% of the active workforce. But only 25% of businesses had women in leadership positions, and that percentage was even lower, only 17%, in terms of medium and large businesses.

Twenty years ago, only 5% of businesses were headed by only 5% of business. “It will take fifty years to achieve equality in small and medium -sized companies and even more for the big ones,” said Nicoletta Berardi and Benjamin Biro, the study authors.

The sector in which each company operates seems to play an important role: only 4% and 10% of manufacturing and transport companies are managed by women. The rate is increased to 35% for health and care companies and 46% for those involved in arts, spectacles and entertainment in general.

The Rixen Law passed in 2021 required by March 2026 on the boards to represent women at 30%. “We will not be ready,” the president of MEDEF, the largest union of employers in France, Patrick Martin, estimated in late January. “Women have to overcome more obstacles than men to take on leading positions,” mainly their pressing family obligations, the report said.

A BPIFrance study showed in 2022 that 37% of wives of women who held leadership do not deal with the household and family children. As far as men’s spouses are concerned, only 14% do not deal with households and children.

Based on the principle that men and women have the same talents, the authors of the study believe that the obstacles encountered by women deprive the French economy of “talented leaders”, for the benefit of “some men, less capable” than those. This problem, which is generally concerned with “access to women and minorities in the labor market”, may have “potentially significant macroeconomic implications”, they warned.