La femme francaise...

So the Global Gender Gap report 2010 says that France comes 46 out of 114. The New York Times interviewed some people to try and figure out why that might be. Some of the stuff that's reported on the video makes me sick. As does some of the stuff that isn't said.

No one, apart from the journalist conducting the interviews, remarks that one reason for gender inequality might be that there is no equal division of labour in the home. French women may know how to carry a handbag, but French men don't seem too adept at changing a nappy or loading a washing machine.

So maybe women stopped in the street or interviewed at the park don't want to bitch about their partners on film. But from a woman who is a politician, and a minister of economic affairs, business and employment you'd expect better, wouldn't you? Not if she's Christine Lagarde, apparently. Here's what she says about the gender gap:

Either it requires so much sacrifice that they're not prepared to commit, or they find it unpleasant, not rewarding based on their values, and essentially they say, you know, thank you very much for the glass ceiling, we've cracked it but there's not enough air up there, so I don't want to go.

So basically, women don't make it to the top because they can't hack it. They're not like men. They're soft. And this despite a prompt from the journalist suggesting that maybe the lack of equality at home would be a good explanation for women's lack of success at work!

But what am I thinking. Of course, if women do all the housework and childcare it is simply because they find it more rewarding based on their values! What an unnatural French woman I must be. Me and most of the others I know. Thank you Christine Lagarde for reminding us of our true nature.

Tcha.