Well, it looks like liberals have found themselves in yet another pickle—this time in France.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who is the first female mayor of Paris and has held the position since 2014, broke a pretty serious gender equality law back in 2018 when she appointed 11 females and ONLY 5 MALES to management positions within her government. She now has to pay a €90,000 fine.
Go ahead, say it with me:
DOWN WITH THE MATRIARCHY!!!!!!
Yes, it's a real story. Check the URL, you're on Not the Bee.
The 2013 French law Mayor Hidalgo broke has since been altered, but its original text was one that actually looked to promote gender equality. The rule said that at the local level one gender cannot represent more than 60 percent of NEW appointments to management positions in public service.
Woke!
Unfortunately, Hidalgo's women held 69 percent of new positions at city hall back in 2018, and they were slapped with a fine equivalent to $109,000.
Yes, you heard that right, they were fined over $100,000 FOR APPOINTING TOO MANY WOMEN TO MANAGEMENT POSITIONS!
Here's a tweet that sort of proves that, but it's in French so you'll have to trust me:
Wow...it's almost as if Mayor Hidalgo doesn't even care about gender equality laws. Sad.
Here's something interesting though—and don't be too surprised by this—in 2019 the rule was changed, and now if your gender goes over 60 percent, that's no big deal...as long as the overall gender balance is not affected. Remember the rule concerns new appointees, not all employees.
Women currently hold 47 percent of these government positions in Paris, so they'll be able to "break the (original) rule" for as long as it takes to make it 50-50.
And I bet you a lot of money they'll go and change the rule again at that point, like, "GIVE US MORE GENDER EQUALITY!!!!"
I also want to point out that this super progressive rule barely mentions the other 3.5 million genders.
SHAME!
Mayor Anne Hidalgo bragged about the fine—which she should—and will bring all her female employees with her when she pays it.
"With my assistants, the group directors and presidents, we will therefore take this check to the Minister of Public Service," she wrote on Twitter.
Good for her, honestly. This law is really stupid, and even women can grasp that (sorry, I'm just joking, really...it's an honest joke).
France's Minister of Public Service Amélie de Montchalin, also a woman, tweeted, "the cause of women deserves better! We repealed this absurd provision in 2019. I want the fine paid by Paris for 2018 to finance concrete actions to promote women in the public service. I invite you to the ministry to evoke them!"
So I think we can all agree: It's time for gender equality to get a little bit more unequal so we can all live in a world where equality exists but we still have inequality, but not that kind of inequality, the equal kind of inequality.
Now that's not too hard, is it?
