Gender equality action plan x Missions Publiques

Gender equality is a core value of Missions Publiques’ daily work since 1998. Working across all levels of policy making, from neighbourhood policy to global negotiations, we support public authorities, civil society organizations and private companies in the design, implementation, and evaluation of citizen participation. As an impact-driven organisation, we are guided by the conviction that participation and citizen voices are meaningful cornerstones to strengthen our democracy and decision-making processes and we strive to make democracy more participatory, more inclusive, and fairer for all. Equity and equality are key principles to deliver high quality participatory processes, in which everyone has its say, feels at ease, and we are committed to abide to these principles also in our internal organisational culture.

Building on these convictions, our Gender Equality Action Plan aims to help us boost our long-time engagement, focusing on 6 thematic action pillars: 

1. Fostering representation of WOMEN AND GENDER MINORITIES in management and gender diverse workforce

We are convinced that representation of women and/or gender minorities in management has a powerful and far-reaching impact on the company’s identity and on employees’ wellbeing at work. At Missions Publiques, in April 2022, our workforce is composed of 8 men and 13 women and 66% of senior level positions are occupied by women.

Beyond the management board level, we strongly believe in the power of a gender diverse workforce. We consider that equal gender mixed workforce at all positions levels performs significantly better.

Strategy for 2023

• We believe that gender equality does not necessarily imply a 50/50 mix of women and men in every job position at Missions Publiques. For us, it implies that it is necessary that all roles – at all level of responsibility – should have a fair representation of all genders, and that no role be “gendered”.

 Measures of success

• For all recruitments during the year 2022/2023, Missions Publiques continues to aim for gender diversity in its hiring processes and in the career evolutions  of its employees.
• For recruitment interviews and annual review interviews, the panel of interviewees should be gender-balanced.

2. Gender-based well-being in the workplace  

We are committed to creating a safe workplace and to enhancing people’s well-being at work. We engage ourselves to seek to maintain a good work-life balance, and a healthy separation between professional and private life for all employees at Missions Publiques. We acknowledge that mental load, anxiety and housework burden affect genders to different degree and can affect their performance and well-being in the workplace as well. We are committed to be mindful of the different personal situation of employees, and to encourage a culture of mutual respect and of mutual aid within our premises.

As an employer, we draw special attention to our responsibility to maintain a workplace that is absolutely free of sexual harassment. Unwelcome sexual attention, physical contact or verbal comments are not, and never have been, acceptable. This includes sexualized comments, jokes or imagery in interactions, communications, or presentation materials, as well as inappropriate touching or sexual advances.

 Strategy for 2023

• We have implemented a reporting procedure to monitor gender-based well-being in the workplace, with the appointment of two Gender Equality Officers.
• We have provided free of charge menstrual products in Missions Publiques’ toilets
• We seek to offer flexible and remote working options for all employees requesting it, by adapting our working structure to suit the practical needs of our employees.

Measures of success

• We put in place a digital reporting box where all employees can submit anonymous feedback monitored by the Gender Equality Officers.
• All bathrooms are provided with free period care products. Furthermore, we plan to implement a menstrual leave encouraging employees suffering from painful periods to take time to rest at home.
• We have installed a rotating cleaning schedule including our staff members without gender-distinction.
• We avoid scheduled meetings after 5:30 pm to the extent possible, and engage ourselves not to organize internal meeting after this time, unless absolutely necessary.

3. Gender-Equal Pay

We believe that equal pay is a matter of justice. Therefore, we reaffirm our commitment to gender pay equity. We ensure that gender minorties and men performing the same role are paid the same amount, and people performing different work of equal or comparable value are paid equitably. This also applies to all kind of allowances, bonus payments and the share of profit remittance.

Strategy 2022/2023

• The board examines the pay system schemes once a year to ensure that Missions Publiques is not at risk of a gender pay gap.

Measures of success

• No justified equal pay claim during the year 2023.

4. Awareness-raising and competence development

We support awareness-raising of conscious and unconscious gender biases and competence development of Missions Publiques’ employees and management, in the field of gender equality.

Strategy for 2023

• We propose awareness-raising activities to all employees at least once a year (e.g. thematic breakfast meeting with experts on gender equality in the workplace).

 Measures of success

• At least one event organised within the time framework 2023.

5. Promoting gender equality in our deliberative processes

We are committed to promote gender equality in our deliberative processes. Therefore, we have integrated gender parity practices in our thematic approaches and in the recruitment policy of our project frameworks. We integrate parity practices in our participant and expert recruitment policy by selecting as many women and gender minorities as men for our assemblies and take into full consideration gender-biases, gender socialisation and participants’ own well-being in our facilitation and moderation techniques. For example, we explore different methods for women and gender minorities (e.g. EQUALS-EU hackathons, citizens’ conference on cancer screening, gendered exploratory walks).

Furthermore, we believe that gender equality as a research and policy topic should be discussed at a large scale with citizens. Working across all governance levels, we addressed the topic within the framework of neighbourhood policy (Citizen’s jury on gender equality for Val de Marne) as well as in the framework of EU-funded research projects (EQUALS-EU through the inclusion of women and gender minorities in tech through innovation and entrepreneurship) and are committed to continuing our work for a more inclusive and gender-equal future.

 Strategy for 2023

• We continue and strengthen our work-investment in gender equality related policy and/or research projects
• We start monitoring our parity and gender practices in our participant and expert recruitment policy.

Measures of success

• We submited at least one project with a clear gender based thematic approach during the time of enforcement of this Gender Equality Action Plan
• We published a monitoring report on our parity practices in our deliberative projects. The report will be designed to allow Missions Publiques to have data readily available on the state of play regarding its participant and expert recruitment and its projects’ participation modalities. The report will identify strengths and opportunities and follow future developments.

6. Leadership and accountability for gender equality

We consider that executive leadership is a key element for a meaningful outcome in gender equality, both in our organisation culture and in our activities. Our board engages to communicate our gender equality goals and key objectives with the team and to draw attention to action as well as concrete outcome.

 Strategy for 2023

• Under the guidance of the Gender Equality Officers, the board commits to implement and update annually the Gender Action Plan. It gives all employees the opportunity to give direct or anonymous feedback on the gender equality strategy once a year.

Measures of success

• At least 85 percent will give “good” or “very good” feedback responses to the opinion poll for all thematic action pillars.
• By May 2023, an updated version of the Gender Equality Action Plan will be drafted and published online.