Wokers of the world unite

What a joy to come across a good news story. They’re few and far between these days. Well, apart from the defeat of Trump, of course. But that’s something to celebrate over the next four years, just like we grieved over his 2016 victory for the last four. In the meantime, we need some other light moments to reduce the gloom, and it was a joy to come across one.

It was provided by France.

These days, the word ‘woke’ has begun to sound like an insult. People are ‘woke’ if they back causes such as equality for LGBT+ people, for minority ethnic groups, or for that odd minority (odd because it’s actually a majority), women. Backing such causes makes many on the right feel uncomfortable, probably because they hate them but know that’s shameful, so they take out their bitterness and ambiguity on those more liberal than they are.

‘Liberal’, of course, being another pejorative term. At least in the US.

With Trump beaten, though, I think it’s a good time for those of us who do think that people are people, and they all have rights that deserve to be respected, to stand up and throw the abuse back in the face of the right-wingers. Perhaps we can take up the word, embrace for ourselves what our opponents use as a term of abuse, and make the word ‘woke’ or own, and proclaim: wokers, stand up!

So what’s the story I was talking about?

Anne Hidalgo, first female and first immigrant mayor of Paris

Anne Hidalgo is the first female mayor of Paris. And the first immigrant mayor, the daughter of Spanish parents. She won the position in 2014 and was re-elected, as a Socialist, this year, at a time when the French Socialist Party was in deep doldrums. There’s talk of the Socialists running her for President next time, and it does seem to me that she’s probably the only candidate that party could put up who would stand a chance of beating Emmanuel Macron and, more to the point, the ghastly far-right Marine le Pen.

Hidalgo’s just been fined 90,000 Euros, in her capacity as mayor. How did she react?

“I am happy to announce that we have been fined,” she told the City council.

Why was she so happy? Because the fine was imposed as punishment for her behaviour in 2018, when she filled sixteen senior positions in the council, eleven with women and just five with men. That meant that 69% of the appointments were to candidates of one gender, contrary to a 2013 law requiring no more than 60%. 

It’s lost on no one that the motivation for the law was to protect women’s employment rights, not men’s.

Also ironic is the fact that had this happened a year later, there would have been no fine. The law changed that year to make it not illegal to exceed the 60% threshold if the result was a more equal distribution of posts between the genders. Since the 2018 recruitments left women holding 47% of senior posts, clearly the exemption would have applied had it already been law.

So, really, the penalty was all down to bad timing.

Hidalgo has no intention of abandoning her feminism. Apart from needing to adjust the gender balance in recruitment, there is also a problem of pay inequality: women in senior positions in the Paris council are, on average, paid 6% less than men. 

What’s more, as she told her fellow councillors, the lag in gender parity in France is far too great for any relaxation in efforts to close the gap. Which is true around the world. The woke agenda hasn’t been exhausted yet…

So how about the fine itself? Anne Hidalgo told the Council that she would take the cheque down to the Ministry of Public Services, which imposed it, accompanied by all her female deputies and divisional directors and, indeed, any female group leaders in the council, whether from the mayor’s group or the opposition. That should make for quite a deputation.

That’s where we reach the attractive sequel to the story.

The Minister for Public Services, who also happens to be a woman, Amélie de Montchalin, responded to Hidalgo’s tweet on the subject.

I want the fine paid by Paris for 2018 to be used to finance concrete steps to promote women in public services. I invite you to the Ministry to discuss them!

The Minister’s tweeted response to the Mayor

Like I said, the whole story is a glimmer of light in a generally gloomy political world. Two women, from different parties, equally committed to tackling one of the major problems of our day. And showing how they can explore ways of doing so together in an exchange of views that warm, supportive and polite. In the waning days of Trump, that politeness alone is a breath of fresh air, isn’t it?

And what a great call to all of us wokers to stand up for our values.