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Good practice Imported

France's Loi Copé-Zimmermann — Mandatory Board Gender Quotas Reaching Near-Parity by 2024

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Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 18% 89/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

France's 2011 Loi Copé-Zimmermann mandated rising board gender quotas (20% by 2014, 40% by 2017) for listed and large companies, voiding non-compliant appointments. By 2024, women held 46.7% of CAC 40 board seats, though executive roles still lag far behind.

46.7%
Women on CAC 40 boards (2024)
46.4%
Women on SBF 120 boards (2024)
~10%
Women on boards before the law (pre-2011)
France's Loi Copé-Zimmermann — Mandatory Board Gender Quotas Reaching Near-Parity by 2024

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
French Parliament (Assemblée nationale) / Ministry of Economy and Finance
Period
2011-ongoing
Keywords
corporate governance, gender equality, financial regulation, private sector

Context

Before 2011, women held only around 10% of board seats at France's largest listed companies. The Loi Copé-Zimmermann (Loi n° 2011-103) set binding gender quotas for the boards of listed companies and large unlisted firms, voiding non-compliant appointments.

Objectives

The law aimed to raise the share of the under-represented sex on boards to at least 20% by 2014 and 40% by 2017 (2020 for the largest unlisted firms), correcting France's below-EU-average board diversity.

Activities

Enforcement rests on voiding non-compliant board appointments and suspending directors' attendance fees at non-compliant boards, mechanisms widely credited with driving high compliance across CAC 40 and SBF 120 companies.

Results

By 2024, women held 46.7% of CAC 40 board seats and 46.4% of SBF 120 board seats, meeting the parity objective at board level, per Glass Lewis governance monitoring.

Conclusions

Academic analysis rates the quota among Europe's most effective board-diversity interventions, though gender diversity drops sharply among CEOs and board chairs; the 2021 Loi Rixain extended a comparable quota logic to executive committees (30% by 2027, 40% by 2030) in direct response to that remaining gap.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
corporate governance/compliance officers within regulated companies, Ministry of Economy and Finance oversight

Conditions for success

  • binding legal quota with void-appointment enforcement
  • phased escalating thresholds (20% by 2014, 40% by 2017)
  • extension of quota logic to executive committees (Loi Rixain) to address the residual gap

Common failure modes

  • the quota reshapes board composition but does not by itself close the executive/CEO gender gap

Where it fits

Governance type
national legislation
Scale
national (listed & large companies)
Income level
high-income (France, EU)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes CERV — Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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