Challenges for American Working Women in France
No one ever said that being a woman in business would be easy. When I started my professional career over 40 years ago, I found myself in the role as a pioneer, of sorts, working in a male-dominated field within the wine industry. As an anomaly, I was afforded a certain level of curiosity by my peers. However, I really needed to work extra hard to gain their respect. Although, back in the days of ‘70s feminism, I never tried to be one of the boys as it did not suit my personality. All that I wanted was to be included in opportunities for career growth. With only two female mentors to help guide me early on, this didn’t happen quickly. But eventually, I achieved a modest degree of success and respect within my field.
I wondered if this path might be different for other women today, especially those who work outside of the U.S. While working women in America still face issues of work-life balance, gender pay gap and harassment (sexual and otherwise), female professionals making their living abroad face an additional minefield of cross-cultural challenges.
During my career I interfaced with people from all over the world while marketing a wide array of luxury wine brands. I spent over a decade working for either the French government or a French-owned wine company. Subsequently, some of the differences in doing business abroad have been on my radar for years. In France, for example, the concept of work-life balance is a fait accompli. Why? Because the government instituted years ago a statutory working week of 35 hours. This doesn’t mean the French are lazy. Far from it. Instead it means a focus on productivity rather then on how much time you spend behind your desk.
Another more recent difference is the “right to disconnect” which went into effect in 2017. This law was meant to protect workers’ private time and to prevent burnout. Unlike in America, workers in France are not expected to respond to emails non-stop including over the weekend and on vacation. This is yet another illustration of our dissimilarities. After all, it is a popular (and true!) saying that in France people work to live whereas Americans live to work.
There are some other striking social differences at work which might surprise Americans. For example, work doesn’t define you in France as it does in our country. In fact, it is considered rude to ask someone what they do for a living. The French are also less personal at work. While our natural inclination is to want to make friends with our peers on the job, the French like to keep their private lives separate from their work. So, don’t expect to be invited to someone’s house for dinner as a welcome to being the new employee at a French firm! It won’t happen.
But these are cross-cultural differences that apply to both sexes. What about just for the American women who currently work in France? What specific issues do they confront? Last month I had the occasion to find out when I met a group of professional American women at a cocktail party honoring Les Dames d’Escoffier’s new Paris chapter. (As mentioned in previous postings, this is an international organization of women leaders in food, beverage and hospitality professions whose mission is education and philanthropy.) When asked what their challenges were, their responses were diverse and sometimes unexpected.
Jane Bertch, owner of La Cuisine Paris, a highly respected cooking school for English-speaking guests, recounted her story about dealing with France’s obsession with bureaucratic red tape. In her capacity as President of the new chapter, Jane needed to set up a bank account for a French Association. Considering the French government supports most educational, artistic and health endeavors, small charities or non-profit associations are still rare in France.
Even for a former banker, Jane said she never expected to encounter so much resistance to opening a bank account. The difficulty for American passport holders continues to pose challenges due to extra reporting imposed on banks. Eventually, through necessity, perseverance and true grit, and the help of Lucy Vanel, the Chapter Treasurer, they successfully scaled the mountain of complications. We toasted the chapter’s accomplishment at the cocktail party when Jane announced she had just received the approval from the bank.
On an earlier visit to Paris, Jane had shared with me over a glass of rosé how hard it was doing business when she first came to France. At that time, she was working for a bank in Paris. She and her French boss were scheduled to entertain some important clients. Reservations were made at an elegant restaurant for dinner. Jane understood her role was to make sure everything went flawlessly. When she noticed one of the guests’ wine glasses was empty at the table, she took it upon herself to take the bottle and serve a refill.
Expecting approval for her attentive care, Jane was shocked to see a look of horror on her superior’s face. After the guests left, she confronted her boss to ascertain what she had done to displease him. To her surprise, she had committed an act of cultural misinterpretation. Where the social codes in formal dining can be very strict, Jane’s act—which she thought was a gracious, hospitable solution to a problem—can have other interpretations. Instead, her boss gave her a quick lesson on what is acceptable and not for formal entertaining in France. He explained that by her serving the guest, she had inadvertently pointed out that he, as the host, had overlooked his guest. By French social codes, it was his job as the evening’s host to pour the wine, if a waiter were not available, not hers, especially as a junior subordinate.
There are other things women are not supposed to do in France, such as be coarse, vulgar or drink too much. Turns out, it is also frowned upon for a woman to touch a bottle of wine, at a restaurant or even at home, if a man is around!
Allison Zinder, who owns Paris on the Edge (www.parisontheedge.com) offering market tours and cooking classes in Paris, had this story to tell about other differences. “Being an American woman in the food business in France means challenging French people’s commonly-held preconceptions about American food. I’m often asked questions about why I’m not overweight, for example, and if I eat hamburgers and pizza at every meal. Come on, folks! I enjoy explaining to people that American food is varied, with a plethora of amazing regional dishes, and that many Americans do indeed spend time cooking fresh ingredients!”
Emily Monaco, former New Yorker and now journalist, blogger (www.Tomato Kumato.com) and tour guide in Paris, said her biggest challenge had nothing to do with being a woman in business but rather being an American. “When I first started out as an entrepreneur here, it wasn't quite as popular among the French as it is now. I got a lot of funny looks when I said I was leaving my cushy CDI job to forge out on my own. (Contrat de durée indéterminée is a contract type that exists in France that among other things protects you from being fired without cause.) But in the years following that choice, I can't count the number of French people who got in touch to ask for advice. Dealing with nay-sayers and people who didn't believe I could do it was tough on morale... but I succeeded in the end (and in large part thanks to, and not in spite of, the country I've called home for twelve years!)”
Another guest, Susan Herrmann Loomis, an internationally-recognized expert on food, journalist/author, and owner of a cooking school in Normandy (www.onruetatin.com), explained what it was like having worked in France for many years: “As a resident of a French town, I knew no other women like me – head of household, business person, traveler, wage earner, mother. The biggest challenge may have been simply to maintain my femininity in a culture where, at least when I first moved here nearly thirty years ago, women in business were considered ‘hard’ and ‘unfeminine’ by their male peers, and simply ‘ovni’ or extraterrestrial by female peers.”
Susan brings up an interesting point: femininity. I’ve observed over the years how much attention French women pay to their appearance. According to Nicole Fiévet—who was quoted in an article in the Guardian several years ago about France’s gender code—“Women feel the pressure to maintain their ‘physique’ more in France than anywhere else in Europe. The pressure comes from society itself, not only from men but women.” French women are supposed to be poised, demure, and moderate in all things. This is a far cry from many American women in business whose style of being aggressive and outspoken does not sit well with the French. I can only imagine how they might react to Sheryl Sandberg’s “lean in” theory for getting ahead at work!
Being a small business owner in France does, however, have some similarities with back home. Lawyer-turned-restaurateur (and dynamite cookie baker!) Moko Hirayama, explained with great enthusiasm while we were there that she had just hired another server. Moko, another member of the Paris chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, had formerly been an attorney for the global law firm, Nixon Peabody. During the day, she practiced law in London. At night she attended baking classes at La Durée. Eventually she and her Lebanese-born and Restaurant Daniel-trained husband, Omar, moved to France where they set up a tiny gem of a bistro in the 11th arrondisement called Mokonuts.
Now parents of two young children, the couple only serve breakfast and lunch so that they can spend quality time with their family. As Moko described the impact of increasing her staff: “I’m not making any more money with the success of our business as I keep putting it back into hiring more people.” This is a frequent syndrome of an entrepreneur where sacrifices are an integral part of growing a small business.
On a lighter side, Beth Cotenoff—who worked in the hotel business in Paris over 20 years ago—described one of the challenges she faced frequently while in Paris: Metro strikes! “I was there in 1990s when Parisian women actually started wearing sneakers to walk to work (Sacre bleu!) since there was no alternative and the strike went on for a while.”
Beth also recalled that “At the time, there were generally fewer opportunities to change jobs or move to a new career especially since you often have to give at least three months’ notice before leaving.” The flip side of this coin from the owner’s perspective is that in France it is almost impossible to fire anyone. Employment at will does not exist in France. To dismiss an employee an owner needs to go through a complicated system established by French law. And, at a very high price, too, as normally firing comes with also having to pay the employee the equivalent of up to two years salary.
Despite these many challenges, I sensed that each of these ladies I recently encountered in Paris had taken the decision to tough it out. Indeed, working back in the U.S. might be less complicated, but sometimes concessions are worth being made, especially if you’ve married a Frenchman and have a family. The tradeoff is that you live in the City of Lights and have access to one of the world’s finest cuisines. Also, a work-life balance is more attainable in France than in the States. So, what if you must put on your running shoes to get to your favorite bistro when the Metro is on strike. It is a small price to pay, especially now when embellished sneakers have become so fashionable in la belle France.