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International Women's Rights Day 2026
Arcom committed to women's rights in the media
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To mark International Women's Rights Day 2026, we take a look back at the work of Arcom, which monitors the image of women in audiovisual programs, fighting stereotypes, sexist prejudice, degrading images, violence against women and domestic violence.
March 8 marks an international day of action and mobilization, highlighting the fight for women's rights and an end to gender inequality. This day has its origins in the women's demonstrations of the early 20th century demanding the right to vote and the right to work.
To mark International Women's Rights Day 2026, numerous events are being organized across France. This year's theme: Rights, justice, action: for all women and girls.
Arcom's actions for women's rights
Control actions
The law of August 4, 2014 for real equality between women and men has strengthened the mission of Arcom, which must watch over the image of women that appears in programs, in particular by fighting stereotypes, sexist prejudices, degrading images, violence against women and violence committed within couples.
This legislative breakthrough enables Arcom to intervene in the event of diffusion of stereotyped and degrading remarks about women, or trivializing violence committed against them.
Incentivisinig actions
Arcom works with publishers to help them achieve a more egalitarian representation of women and men, and better coverage of women's rights issues in their programs.
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Media coverage of women's sport
As part of its mission to support and anticipate social developments in the audiovisuel landscape, in terms of diversity, women's rights and public health, Arcom is committed to promoting women's sport on television and radio.
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Les ressources de l'Arcom
Media education
As part of its role as a manager of media, information and digital literacy education, Arcom provides teaching resources for educational staff to address issues of representation of women and men in the audiovisual media.
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Information, findings and key figures
France has more women than men (52% women, 48% men).
Yet women earn almost 20% less than men at work. Although more highly educated (57% baccalaureate holders vs. 43% of men, 51% higher education graduates vs. 42% of men), only 17% of women hold managerial positions.
In politics, the development in the number of women elected to the French National Assembly has stagnated since 2012: 26.9% in 2012, 37.3% in 2022 and 36% in 2024.
Finally, while more and more women are present on air (43% in 2023), speaking time given to women on all programs has not exceeded 36% since 2019.
- To find out more, browse the2024 edition of Key figures: Towards real equality between women and men from the French Ministry for Equality between Women and Men and the Fight against Discrimination.
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Sexist and sexual violence
271,000 victims of domestic violence were recorded by the security services in France in 2023.
114,079 victims of sexual violence in 2023.
The benchmark figures for violence against women.
Since the beginning of 2025, 23 feminicides have been inventoried by the"noustoutes.org" organization.
- 1907: Married women could freely dispose of their wages;
- 1924: The baccalaureate and secondary education became the same for boys and girls;
- 1944: Women win the right to vote and stand for election;
- 1946: The preamble to the French Constitution establishes the principle of equal rights for men and women;
- 1965: Women could work without their husband's authorization and open a bank account;
- 1972: Law on equal pay for men and women;
- 1983: France ratifies the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (NY Convention 1980);
- 1995: Creation of a parity observatory;
- 2001: Law updating and strengthening the 1983 law on parity; law to fight discrimination in employment; Social Security Financing Act introducing paternity leave;
- 2003: Creation of the Conseil supérieur de l'égalité professionnelle;
- 2004: Creation of a professional equality labeling commission to promote diversity in the workplace;
- 2006: Law on equal pay for men and women, aimed at eliminating pay gaps in the private sector; and creation of the European Institute for Gender Equality;
- 2011: Law requiring at least 20% representation of women on boards of directors and supervisory boards;
- 2018: Major national cause of the five-year term. At the close of the Interministerial Committee for Women's Rights and Gender Equality, the Prime Minister announces several measures designed to transmit and diffuse the culture of legality (combating stereotypes in the media and advertising, obligation to achieve results in equal pay, etc.). The law of September 5 proposes the annual publication of indicators on any pay gaps and the actions implemented (companies with over 50 employees: Calculation of the pay gap for a comparable position + the gap in the rate of individual M/F pay rises + the proportion of female employees who received a pay rise after returning from maternity leave + the gap in the rate of pay rises excluding promotion + the gap in the rate of promotion + the number of employees of the underrepresented sex among the 10 employees with the highest salaries;
- 2020: no later than March 1, companies with 50 to 250 employees will calculate and publish their "professional equality index" for the first time, as defined in the decree published on January 9, 2019.
On the same subject
Women's rights
13 June 2026
The fair representation of women and men on the airwaves and the fight agains discrimination on the grounds of sex are essential missions for Arcom.
The audiovisual media play a major role in raising public awareness in this area, and must therefore ensure that women are portrayed in their programs.