I met Antoine de Gabrielli and his wife Beatrice de Gourcuff, through my wife and, as with only those rare relationships with spouse’s friends, I totally co-opted them as if they were my friends originally. They are a most impressive couple, boasting six children and a fun eclectic group of friends and an equally colourful home.
Guest post by Antoine de Gabrielli
January 2015: In France 85% of couples are dual earners.
- The mobility of one’s spouse becomes a discriminatory factor for the other.
- Beyond the specific issues related to the employment and management of men and women, there is a new emerging management challenge: dual-earner couples.
February 2015: Mark Zuckerberg unveils “Zee-city,” the Facebook city.
- Daycare, concierge, convenience stores, housing … it’s the company that absorbs the city and not the reverse, to retain feminine talent, in particular.
- Individual freedom or burgeoning totalitarianism?
- The city and the social ties coming up against the universal enterprise.
May 2015 France: Civil recognition of children born abroad to homosexual couples.
- Mother surrogacy: a commercialization of women, a boundary crossed (transgressed?)
- The bellies of the poor women at the service of wealthy men.
June 2015: Success in France 1 European network of professionals committed to equality between men and women, the HAPPY MEN network.
- Men are coming to understand that professional equality is beneficial for them, too. It opens the possibility of crossing the “glass floor” i.e. to work without sacrificing one’s personal life.
- The need for a wholesome private life for professional and engaged men is beginning to be recognized.
- 10 major partners in 2015 for Happy Men Network.
July 2015 Germany: 45% of graduates of higher education do not have children.
- German birth rate: 1.38.
- Massive opening of frontiers to migrants: 1 million entrants estimated in 2015.
- Ethnic tensions (PEGIDA – Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident / in German: Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes)
October 2015: Publication of the 8th Women Matter study.
- Proven benefits of professional mixity and equality between women and men: stop the waste of talent, better meet market expectations.
- Indicator of organizational and managerial effectiveness: percentage of women leaders versus women working within the company.
October 2015: Facebook and Apple offer their workforce to support the costs of freezing oocytes.
- Objective: “No longer have to choose between career and children.”
- Bearing children takes a back seat to the career, thanks to science?
- Female fertility under the control of the company.
November 2015: Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, said he would take parental leave for two months to care of his children.
- By offering four months of parental leave to take care of the children, demonstrates that Facebook is far ahead of US law.
- One key goal: to attract and retain top talent.
November 2015: In the USA, 29% of women have a higher income than their spouse.
- In all issues of diversity, a tipping point is reached above 30%.
- Men are faced with the prospects and challenges of free, family and social.
- Solutions: to give value to that which is free or to commoditize?
- The rise of expert-advisors of private life.
November 2015: In France, RATP (public transport services) faces the “religious fact” in business.
- RATP crosses the line: the discrimination of women in business under the pretext of religion: no woman senior leader, no greeting, and a refusal to address women…
Antoine de Gabrielli, based out of Paris, is Co-Founder and CEO of Companieros and President of Mercredi-C-Papa. He is also Founder of Happy Men, an inter-enterprise network for men who are committed to the battle for equality of the sexes. As their motto says, Happy Men share more.
