Among the 120 largest French companies listed on the stock exchange, only three are headed by a woman CEO. Yet businesses run by women are more competitive than those run by men. On the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day, Europe 1 returns to this observation that the investment company Women Equity Partners has been making for ten years. According to its latest study of more than 40,000 medium-sized businesses, those run by women are 32% more profitable. And this phenomenon is not explained only by better management or better management of the company. The difficulty for women to reach these positions also promotes better results for those who do.
Women with “particularly endowed profiles”
Indeed, as explained by Dunya Bouhacene, president of Women Equity Partners, “it is considered today that it is still not completely obvious for a woman to project herself to the highest positions because there are few models and that not much in his environment encourages him to do so “. This observation, unmistakable in the figures, has a double impact on female leadership. “The minority of women at the head of companies means that those who plan and succeed have more particularly endowed profiles”, develops Dunya Bouhacene. In addition, “the constraint plays favorably from this point of view. Faced with an adverse environment, you have individuals who project themselves in a structured way and deconstruct the rules of the game in order to be able to make a place for themselves and that creates leaders of ‘company that are remarkable. “
Aurélie Gaudillère is one of them, but she sometimes feels the need to reaffirm her legitimacy in the face of this environment which is too often hostile to her. At 42, the co-founder of Enerlis, an energy efficiency services company, manages more than 150 employees. In six years of existence, his company has reached a turnover of more than 80 million euros and, despite everything, some dispute it. “Sometimes you have to show a little more character or show why you are the president,” she admits.
A criterion of attractiveness
If some employees are skeptical, others are acquired by their boss. Laura, the company’s business development manager, for example, feels the difference of being headed by a woman. “In everyday life, it is not obvious but if I can draw a parallel with other experiences that I have had in structures led by men, I find that female management is much more about results, performance, skills, in a fair way, “she assures us.
And having a CEO can even become a criterion of attractiveness outside according to Joanna, HRD of Enerlis. “I do a lot of recruitment interviews and when I ask candidates why they want to join us, more and more of them are sensitive to the fact that the company is run by a woman,” she explains.
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