Despite ethnic tensions, counting voters by race remains taboo in French presidential campaign

Washington Post World
By Associated Press, Published: April 16

PARIS — Ahead of France’s presidential elections, you might find polls showing how factory workers or university students are likely to vote — but you’d be hard-pressed to find data on which candidates black or Muslim voters prefer.

A 1978 law forbids anyone, from government census-takers to private researchers, from counting citizens based on their ethnic, racial or religious background. Though the law allows a few exceptions, it makes it virtually impossible for pollsters or political parties to measure nationwide support for candidates among those various constituencies, a situation that would be unimaginable in a U.S. presidential election.

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/despite-ethnic-tensions-counting-voters-by-race-remains-taboo-in-french-presidential-campaign/2012/04/16/gIQALGalKT_story.html

France to push women into the boardroom

TimesOnline
January 21, 2010

The French version of the glass ceiling has just been cracked open by parliamentary vote. With the backing of President Sarkozy's administration, the National Assembly last night passed a bill that aims to force big companies to appoint women to 40 percent of their seats on the board.
The quota is likely to reach the statue books, with amendments, later this year, making France the biggest state so far to use the law to break the boys only culture of the boardroom. Norway introduced a 40 percent rule in 2002 when women accounted for only 6 per cent of board seats there. Spain has also just passed a similar law.
The measure will mean an upheaval because the boards of France's top companies remain male bastions, along with those of southern Europe (see chart below). Women occupy just 10.5 percent of board seats in the 650 publicly quoted companies to which the new law will apply. Corporations will have six years to reach the 40 percent mark. After that, all board appointments will be voided if they do not maintain at least a 60-40 share between men and women.

Full Story: http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/charles_bremner/2010/01/france-pushes-women-into-the-boardroom-.html

Sarkozy Acts for Ethnic Diversity

The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:41 p.m. ET

PALAISEAU, France (AP) -- President Nicolas Sarkozy, impatient with what he said was the slow pace of promoting diversity in France, announced measures Wednesday to put more ethnic minorities on TV screens, in political parties and in elite schools.
A government action plan to be presented by March will spell out the measures in detail. The project is to be overseen by a newly appointed commissioner for diversity and equality, Yazid Sabeg, a son of Algerian immigrants who is known for his efforts to bring equality to the workplace.
''It's not moving fast enough,'' Sarkozy said in a speech at the elite Ecole Polytechnique, south of Paris, a symbol of the very system that has locked minorities out of the mainstream. France must change so that ''no French person feels like a stranger in his own country.''
Turning to his audience, Sarkozy said prestigious schools must make room for all.
''We are going to throw open the doors of places where tomorrow's elite are formed,'' he said.
He wants top schools to reserve 25 percent of their places for students receiving state aid by September -- and 30 percent by September 2010. Many students who receive government education funds are ethnic minorities from underprivileged backgrounds.
Increasing diversity was a campaign promise of Sarkozy, elected in May 2007. Long ignored, diversity topped the political agenda after fall 2005 riots in poor French neighborhoods exposed deep anger among people of immigrant origin and revealed the extent of discrimination in France.
The election of Barack Obama as U.S. president sparked renewed soul-searching about why so few ethnic minorities rise to the top in France.
Sarkozy squarely rejected affirmative action for France. But in a significant departure from French practice, he raised the possibility that scientists might begin gathering statistics on ethnicity -- long taboo in a country that is officially colorblind.
Researchers are handicapped by the inability to make head counts based on religious or ethnic factors and have pressed for permission to do so. Sarkozy said scientists must be able ''to clearly identify lagging and measure progress.''

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2008/12/17/world/AP-EU-France-Ethnic-Diversity.html