“Well, you’ve had your day! » Who hasn’t heard this kind of seemingly innocuous remark from a very stubborn colleague who wants at all costs to make you pay for having to leave the house at 5pm after your already busy day at the office? The new #StOpE (Stop Ordinary Workplace Sexism) barometer, unveiled on Thursday 15 June 2023, shows that this type of commentary is commonplace: 8 out of 10 women regularly experience ordinary sexism at work, both in the attitudes of their colleagues or the decisions that affect them. This survey, conducted among 90,000 employees, highlights the consistency of these inequalities, “ unchanged[es] for two years” he lived “of all generations”.

Inequalities in the world of work are growing

Invited this Thursday on France Inter to comment on the conclusions of the barometer, Brigitte Grésy, general secretary of the Higher Council for professional equality and former president of the Higher Council for equality between women and men, returned to the definition of ordinary sexism: It is “ these gestures, these words and these behaviors that seem like nothing, in an insidious and sneaky way, delegitimize and disqualify women in the world of work “. And to add: It’s a daily sexism that sometimes you don’t see “.

Sexist jokes, disparaging comments like ” you don’t have the back for that » or inappropriate comments like « You’ll take another three months off when a pregnancy is announced… All these mechanisms contribute to widening the gap of inequalities at work. Brigitte Grésy identifies four bastions of this ordinary sexism: “the attitude towards women’s management with this myth of female leadership where we try to essentialize women’s skills that would be soft and empathetic; maternity ; occupational inequalities; and everyday incivilities such as pranks, paradoxical injunctions, incivility in meetings when cutting the floor “.

Uplifting figures

6 out of 10 women report being subjected to “demeaning remarks based on stereotypical representations of femininity”three quarters of the interviewees declare that they are regularly subjected to sexist “jokes” and 7 out of 10 interviewees have already had the right to unsolicited comments about their motherhood, presented as a problem or a handicap for their career.

With regards to professional development opportunities, 50% of women interviewed explained that they have already been retained because of their gender. 36% were denied bonuses or raises, 31% didn’t get the promotion they deserved. The path is long.

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