Top French offices stop work in support of gender pay gap protest

Institutions including Paris City Hall stop work amid spontaneous demonstations to highlight wage disparity between men and women. Staff at some of Paris’s most high-profile political and cultural offices stopped work at 4.34pm on Monday in solidarity with a protest against women being paid less than men.

Women’s rights campaigners at the feminist newsletter Les Glorieuses had urged female workers to down tools from that time. They suggested that doing so until the end of the year – in effect taking 38.2 days off – would highlight the global wage disparity that experts say will not disappear until 2186.

“From 7 November at 16.34 [and seven seconds] women will be working ‘voluntarily’,” Les Glorieuses wrote, referencing research that women work for free, compared with men, for a certain time of the year.

The activists had not intended to spark demonstrations with their call to protest, which reached 2 million people through the social media service Thunderclap.


The author: Michel DEURINCK

Michel Deurinck, born in Brussels in 1950, started his career in the Belgian civil service, dedicating over 30 years to public service. Upon retirement, he pursued his passion for journalism. Transitioning into this new field, he quickly gained recognition for his insightful reporting on politics and culture. Deurinck's balanced and thoughtful approach to journalism has made him a respected figure in Belgian media.

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