The leader of France's main employers' organisation, Laurence Parisot, has launched an attack on the enduring sexism in French society in the wake of the scandal involving IMF head Dominique Strauss Kahn.

"/> The leader of France's main employers' organisation, Laurence Parisot, has launched an attack on the enduring sexism in French society in the wake of the scandal involving IMF head Dominique Strauss Kahn.

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SEXISM

‘Bosses’ boss’ likens sexism to racism

The leader of France's main employers' organisation, Laurence Parisot, has launched an attack on the enduring sexism in French society in the wake of the scandal involving IMF head Dominique Strauss Kahn.

'Bosses' boss' likens sexism to racism
MEDEF/Wikimedia (File)

In an outspoken interview with Le Parisien, Parisot has revealed her own personal struggles with sexism as well as spelling out how she thinks France should deal with the issue. 

The bosses’ boss, as she is known in France, believes that the affair involving the former IMF boss and a hotel maid is a critical turning point for France. She hopes the issue “will help free speech. The French may be clear on human rights, but they have neglected the issue of equality between the sexes.”

In the interview, in which she denounces the behaviour of male politicians, businessmen and even sexist advertising campaigns, she claims “it’s vital that we denounce sexism. It’s a kind of racism, just like there is against blacks, jews and muslims.”

51-year old Parisot has been head of the main employers’ organisation in France since 2005. She recently won a second term after being uncontested in the election and winning 94 percent of the vote.

She told the newspaper that “after the Dominique Strauss Kahn affair, the small group of women who work at Medef got together and talked about our own experiences, both personal and professional. We’d never spoken about these issues before.” 

She even recounted how her very first job interview turned out to be a dinner invitation and that the dinner was “difficult to deal with but I managed to put up a good defence”.

Parisot rejects the claims of some in France that Americans are too puritanical. “Relations between the sexes are clear in the US, but still very blurred here”. 

She said she hopes the subject will become a key issue in next year’s presidential election. While she doesn’t think it should be the only criteria, she thinks a female President would be a good thing. 

Her proposals to fight sexism include a powerful ministry of women and longer paternity leave.

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SPORT

Norwegians give short shrift to fine for women’s handball team

Norwegian officials reacted sharply on Tuesday after the country's women's beach handball team was fined for wearing shorts instead of bikini bottoms in competition.

Norwegians give short shrift to fine for women's handball team
Norway's Stine Ruscetta Skogrand (L) vies with Montenegro's Vukcevic Nikolina (C) and Ema Ramusovic (R) during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics women's qualifying handball match between Montenegro and Norway in Podgorica on March 19, 2021. (Photo by SAVO PRELEVIC / AFP)

The Disciplinary Committee of the European Handball Federation (EHF) on Monday fined the Norway 1,500 euros ($1,768), or 150 euros per player, after they wore shorts in their bronze-medal match loss to Spain at the European Beach Handball Championship in Varna, Bulgaria, on Sunday.

“In 2021, it shouldn’t even be an issue,” the president of the Norwegian Volleyball Federation, Eirik Sordahl, told national news agency NTB.

Clothing has long been an issue in beach sports, with some women players finding bikinis degrading or impractical.

While bikinis have not been compulsory for beach volleyball players since 2012, International Handball Federation (IHF) rules state “female athletes must wear bikini bottoms” and that these must have “a close fit”, be “cut on an upward angle toward the top of the leg” and a side depth of no more than 10 centimetres.

Male players wear shorts.

READ MORE: Norwegian female beach handballers scrap bikini in spite of rules

“It’s completely ridiculous,” Norway’s Minister for Culture and Sports, Abid Raja, tweeted after Monday’s ruling. “What a change of attitude is needed in the macho and conservative international world of sport.”

Ahead of the tournament, Norway asked the EHF for permission to play in shorts, but were told that breaches of the rules were punishable by fines.

They complied, until their last match.

“The EHF is committed to bring this topic forward in the interest of its member federations, however it must also be said that a change of the rules can only happen at IHF level,” EHF spokesman Andrew Barringer said in an email.

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