Female employees and customers of the bank: parallel histories
Women’s rights have come a long way at the bank for employees and customers alike. Learn about the important moments in the history of the rights of women from 1804 to the proactive gender equality policy of BNP Paribas.
EMPLOYEES
1880
Women arrive at the bank, taking on administrative work in the accounting, securities and bonds, and debt collection departments.
1902
Female employees at an event at the Comptoir national d’escompte de Paris (CNEP) form a company to finance compensation for medical leave.
1913
The Strauss laws legally require that women be paid maternity leave.
1914-1918
French women join the war effort and replace men in the workplace.
In 1917, women account for 25% of the CNEP’s staff in Paris.
1946
The preambule to the Constitution includes the principle that women and men are equal before the Law in all spheres.
1977
Women account for 50,2% of BNP’s staff in France.
1986
The circular of 11 March 1986 recommends the feminisation of names of professions, functions, grades and titles.
Women take on executive roles at the bank. One of the Group’s female executives is tasked with overseeing the global Stocks business line at the CIB (then BFI).
2009
The BNP Paribas Mixcity association is created by and for the Group’s female executives, in order to promote women’s access to upper-management positions and an improved work-life balance.
2018
Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, BNP Paribas CEO, became “Thematic Champion” in 2018 as part of the HeForShe initiative. For this three-year partnership, BNP Paribas is committed to improving gender diversity in certain banking businesses, with a predominantly female (HR) or male (Global Markets) workforce.
Women account for 53% of the Group’s staff and 51% of new hires.
2019
In december 2019, all members of the BNP Paribas Executive Committee signed the Charter “Never without her”. Each signatory commits not to participate in events with more than 3 speakers that does not include women, whether internal or external, in person or remotely.
CUSTOMERS
1881
Married women are allowed to be issued a savings book without permission from their husbands.
Up until 1965, few women conducted business with banks, because married women were required to obtain their husband’s permission to work, receive a salary or open an account in their own name.
Under French civil Code, women are legally incompetent and under their fathers’ or husbands’ legal guardianship.
1955
The Banque nationale pour le commerce et l’industrie, the Group’s forerunner, releases an advertisement specifically targeting a female clientèle.In it, the Bank gives an overview of its services and aims to cater to all of women’s financial needs.
1965
Following an aborted attempt in 1907, the law of 13 July 1965 grants married women the right to work without permission from their husbands and to open an account in their own name.
1968
Following the adoption of the law of 1965, BNP begins advertising checking services directly to women.
1978
Ten years after BNP’s first advertising campaign targeting female customers and 13 years after the law of 13 July 1965 granting women the right to open a bank account, the Bank dedicates one of its branding campaign slogans to women: “BNP: taking women into account”.
2017
BNP Paribas has launched a female-centric new initiative, #ConnectHers, that aims to support female entrepreneurship, promote gender equality and create the conditions for women to succeed.
2018
Since 2018, BNP Paribas has been allocated an annual €2 billion in bank loans for women’s entrepreneurship projects and 10% of its equity investments in favour of women-led businesses. This ambition has been raised to 25% by 2025.
2021
BNP Paribas is mobilising alongside 100,000 entrepreneurs for the 9th edition of the “Youth Awareness Weeks – Women and Entrepreneurship”.
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