“Many elected officials are not aware of the inequality problems”, according to Sylvie Guerry-Gazeau

LSexism is hidden in certain details. It is not always easy for the average person to flush it out but in this little game, Sylvie Guerry-Gazeau, vice-president of the La Rochelle urban community in charge, among other things, of gender equality, learned to stop being fooled.

A few days ago, during a public meeting, one of the vice-presidents introduced his four male colleagues with their title of mayor. The three elected women sitting next to them had to make do with their names. In private, Sylvie Guerry-Gazeau did not hesitate to point out him. A macho gaffe, conscious or not, among many others. At the beginning of the month, 21 out of 28 municipalities signed the European Charter for equality of women and men in local life. The opportunity for the mayor of Clavette to return to her delegation which is doing what it can with few resources. The road is still very long.

A charter to enforce equality between women and men in communities, we may wonder why we are still here.

Indeed it could seem useless or absurd. But even today in all sectors of local life, employment, work, transport, culture, sport, etc., there is de facto unequal treatment. The charter obliges the signatory community to do introspective work on its functioning: how many streets have a feminine name, how many users do I have in the associations and sports clubs that I subsidize, a team of Are girls funded at the same level as a boys' team? There is no need to scrape for long! There is no functioning that does not deserve to be analyzed.

“If you are an inveterate macho, you remain so even at the helm of a municipality”

Spain has been doing this work for years. Gender equality has become a compulsory skill in the same way as roads or finances. Even the smallest town halls are taking advantage of it. Today, Spain is cited as a reference in the fight against violence against women while it broke records in Europe for feminicides.

Châtelaillon, Esnandes, La Jarne, Marsilly, Montroy, Sainte-Soulle and Saint-Xandre, seven municipalities out of twenty-eight, have not signed the European charter. What's blocking?

Some elected officials see neither the interest nor the importance. For them there is no subject on their commune or they are very secondary subjects. Among the arguments I hear: “there are not enough elected officials involved in my council”, “yes but that’s trivial”, “it’s not essential”. Like society, there are still many elected officials who are not aware of inequality problems. But I don't despair of getting them to sign.

Plan d’actions

The European charter, drawn up in 2006, aims to ensure respect for gender equality in fields as diverse as professional life, digital technology or the effects of climate change. More than 2,000 European communities are signatories to the latest version, including 372 in France. Each community undertakes to propose an action plan within two years.

You recently declared that local elected officials lacked a lot of maturity on the issue of gender equality. Why are they so little aware?

They leave civil society like the rest of us. But when you are responsible for an entire territory, you can only work for 50% of the population. They have no sociological training on the place of women in local life, on questions of inclusiveness… You carry your past with you. If you are an inveterate macho, you remain so even when in charge of a municipality. When we put on “gender glasses”, we realize that we need to widen the sidewalks to allow mothers with strollers and the elderly to move around better, that laundromats in buildings should no longer be located underground. ground or even that the multi-sport fields exclude girls because there are no toilets nearby. Without training, no elected official asks these questions!

“There is always an elected official who blunders, consciously or not”

In front of your colleagues, you rarely miss an opportunity to speak on the subject. Is it paying off?

Yes, it comes little by little. There is not a community office where I am not involved! There is always an elected official who blunders, consciously or not, very macho or even scandalous behavior or quite simply things that are no longer possible. For example: we have just awarded a grant of 15,000 euros to a think tank supported by several schools on campus which brings in business leaders every year on the theme of energy transition. However, there are only 10% women among the speakers. I raised my finger several times, I did not succeed in changing the vote, but some elected officials ended up joining me. Next time, the subsidy will no longer pass.

Your delegation on the issue of gender equality has only existed since 2020. What are its resources?

It was created in 2020 but it remained a ghost delegation until April 2021! I got a quarter of time and I had no budget until 2022. Today I have 10,000 euros, which is not proof of an exacerbated will. I can defend that my delegations to the Agglo do not cost very much!

Since the creation of the delegation, have you had the impression of changing mentalities?

We were starting so much from scratch, I can only say that things are progressing! But a quarter of time devoted to the question of equality, I am ashamed! I have a lot of roadblocks, obstacles. With more resources, we could have done much better. What saddens me is to see that the largest community in Charente-Maritime is cruelly lacking in resources for women in general, young or old. At the Agglo, the delinquency prevention service is in the process of rewriting its master plan and we will have to wait until 2025 for a section on violence against women to be integrated! Despite everything, we are moving forward. I managed to raise awareness in certain communities. The proof with this charter.