2022 Annual Report 19 30% Club France Investor Group Meritocracy or woman – alibi? Really? Quotas don’t come at the expense of meritocracy. We are not talking here about the “woman-alibi” as Christine Lagarde told me once. Roadblocks are more at the middle management level where managers can be reluctant to recruit women that could leave for maternity, ask for part time, or be perceived as less available due to family responsibilities. Such considerations and practices should be put in the past as they are no longer socially acceptable. What is their precise definition of “senior managers and members of the management bodies”? How to delimit this universe? • The 30% Club France Investor Group has observed that companies often have their own definition of governing bodies. For example, the governance of a large French bank is composed of two governing bodies: the general management and the executive committee. The “highest” body is the general management (five members), and it is entirely composed of men. Which one is the most relevant? • The notion of “management bodies” no longer poses any issue given that its definition has been discussed at length with lawyers and finally established in the French Code of Commerce that governs private companies. It covers both the executive committee and the management committee. The law concerns at least 2,000 companies and goes far beyond the SBF120 targeted by the 30% Club France Investor Group.