Women leaders & the French Rixain Law: the glass ceiling is also organizational
- Jul 22
- 5 min read
Companies talk about diversity. They make commitments. They publish indicators. They know that increasing the number of women in leadership positions is now a governance issue.
But on the ground, one question still persists: why do so many women still progress more slowly towards management, leadership or executive committee positions?
The answer lies not only in individual career paths, personal ambitions, or family constraints. It also lies in the organization of the company itself: promotion criteria, managerial culture, internal networks, implicit rules of availability, the way responsibilities are distributed, and how key positions are actually assigned.
For SMEs the issue goes far beyond compliance or employer branding. It concerns the company's ability to identify its talent, secure its managerial succession, and build stronger management teams.
The glass ceiling does not disappear with good intentions.
The feminization of management bodies is progressing, at least in France. The French Rixain Act now requires companies with at least 1,000 employees to meet targets for balanced representation amongst senior management and governing bodies, with an initial target of 30% in 2026 and a trajectory towards 40% in 2029.
This regulatory constraint has already accelerated awareness. It forces the companies concerned to examine their figures, their talent pools, and their promotional practices.
But the glass ceiling isn't just a percentage. A company can have a proactive policy while still maintaining internal mechanisms that hinder women's access to positions of responsibility.
And career decisions are often made well before joining the executive committee: in the first management role, in access to high-profile projects, in exposure to senior management, in the trust placed in high-stakes positions, in the way potential is identified. And it is here that the organization sometimes creates its own limitations.
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Women are not lacking in ambition. They simply lack access to the right opportunities.
In many companies, leadership careers do not follow a straight line . They are built in stages: managing a team, managing a larger scope, leading a sensitive project, directing a transformation, taking over a struggling business, being exposed to a shareholder or a strategic committee.
These experiences provide legitimacy . They build trust. They make a profile visible… However, not all female employees have the same access to these decisive stages .
Some remain confined to less high-profile roles. Others are recognized as highly reliable, but less frequently assigned to disruptive projects. Some have their potential assessed through their perceived availability. Others must prove for longer that they are ready for the next level…
None of these decisions alone is sufficient to explain the gap . However, their accumulation always ends up shaping the trajectories.
Availability remains an implicit criterion of power
In many organizations, management positions remain associated with a very high level of " availability ": late meetings, constant urgency, last-minute travel, informal presence, ability to absorb workloads without showing the burden…
This model weighs heavily on all managers. But it weighs differently when the organization continues to consider, even implicitly, that certain life constraints affect women more...
The point is not to lower the standards. Leadership positions always require commitment, resilience, and the ability to make decisions in complex situations.
The issue is to clarify what truly constitutes leadership performance .
However, being constantly available in no way guarantees the quality of a referee's decision. Staying in the office late at night does not prove the ability to motivate a team. Responding to every emergency is no substitute for a clear vision, disciplined execution, and the ability to prioritize.
When an organization confuses presence, availability, and leadership , it risks dismissing strong candidates in favor of those who are simply (or unfortunately) more in line with dominant norms.
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Diverse management requires an organization that truly prepares its talent
Companies that make sustainable progress don't just wait for women to "dare more." They work on the conditions for access to positions of responsibility .
This requires identifying female talent early on , giving them access to visible projects, exposing them to decision-making bodies, preparing for succession, training managers to spot biases, and making promotion criteria more explicit.
This also implies looking at the gaps between rhetoric and practice .
Who is chosen to lead the strategic projects?
Who is invited to the meetings where decisions are made?
Who benefits from an internal sponsor?
Who receives demanding but constructive feedback?
Who is encouraged to take on a more high-profile role?
These are very concrete questions. And they clearly fall under the umbrella of managerial governance.
In SMEs or mid-sized companies, where decisions are often faster and less formalized than in large corporations, these mechanisms can have a significant impact. For example, close proximity to the CEO can accelerate a career. However, it can also limit the diversity of candidates identified when the talent pool is always viewed by the same people.
Why this issue needs to be brought up to the Executive Committee
The advancement of women to leadership positions cannot remain solely an HR issue. It directly concerns the executive committee, as it raises questions about how the company prepares for succession, distributes opportunities, secures key positions, and builds its future performance.
An executive committee that takes the subject seriously doesn't just look at how many women are in management. It looks at where they are located in the organization, in what types of positions , with what level of exposure , what career prospects , and what real ability to access the most strategic functions .
The subject then becomes a matter of business management .
While women are numerous in support functions but underrepresented in operational management roles, we need to understand why.
If they progress to a certain level and then stagnate, we need to analyze the steps that are blocking them.
If promotions are still made in a rush, from a limited pool, the organization needs to review its way of preparing for successions.
Diversity cannot be decreed when appointing an executive committee. It must be built well beforehand.
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The role of an Interim Manager for this type of project
It is not uncommon in companies for Rixain compliance to remain blocked due to lack of time, method or perspective.
An interim manager can then intervene in a support role. Their added value lies in their ability to look at the organization objectively, to identify obstacles, and to move decisions forward.
This can help the company to
map your talents
clarify the promotion criteria
identify the stepping-stone positions
structuring managerial career paths
supporting managers
establish piloting rituals at the right level
In an SME or an ETI, this intervention can be particularly useful when the manager knows that the subject is important, but does not know how to turn it into concrete decisions.
TOP Resources: From observation to action plan
TOPS Ressources supports SME and mid-sized company leaders in phases where a key function needs to be strengthened, structured or secured quickly: transformation, reorganization, social tension, managerial evolution or strengthened governance.
The Rixain law accelerates a topic already present in many companies: how to better identify talent, open up positions of responsibility, prepare for successions and build stronger management teams that are above all more compliant with the law?
An interim manager can help structure this project, alongside the HR director and the executive committee, with a clear roadmap and execution logic.
Do you want to assess your situation, structure your succession plans or accelerate the feminization of your leadership bodies?
TOPS Resources can help you quickly mobilize the transition profile best suited to your context.
TOPS Resources, Interim Management in Executive Committee roles: CEO, CFO, HR Director, Supply Chain Manager, Transformation Director, Sales Director...
