Executive body gender balance policy
With women making up 63% of its workforce at 31 December 2025, the Lagardère group has strong female representation and having a balanced representation of men and women in top executive positions is one of its priority commitments.
In this context, the Group has signed up to the UN’s Women Empowerment Principles and to the #StOpE initiative which aims to combat casual sexism in the workplace.
In line with this commitment and with the recommendations of the Afep-Medef Code to which the Company adheres, General Management has adopted a diversity policy for the Group’s executive bodies, which is regularly reviewed by the Board of Directors and its Appointments, Remuneration and CSR Committee.
Since the proportion of women executives of the Group reached 51% in 2020, General Management had decided in early 2021 to focus its efforts going forward on a smaller scope that is representative of the Group’s top executives. The scope chosen takes into account the Group’s specific characteristics, notably its significant decentralised structure and international exposure and corresponds to: (i) members of the Group’s Executive Committee and their direct reports, (ii) members of the executive committees of the four major territories in which Lagardère operates, as well as all members of the management committees of the French administrative departments and senior executives in France for Lagardère Publishing, (iii) members of the executive committee and the management teams, members of the country management committees for Lagardère Travel Retail, (iv) members of the executive committee for Lagardère News and Lagardère Radio and (v) members of the management committees of Lagardère Paris Racing and Lagardère Live Entertainment.
For this scope (which comprised 42% women at end-2020), in early 2021, General Management had initially set a target of 45% women representation by the end of 2024. This was to be achieved through several action plans, including:
- actively seeking appropriate gender balance when recruiting for managerial positions, up to the short-list phase;
- preparing succession plans as part of talent reviews with a greater emphasis on gender balance;
- promoting work-life balance, including parenting;
- focusing on equal opportunity in remuneration, training and career development policies;
- providing training and awareness-raising on diversity issues and on unconscious bias for all those involved in the recruitment process;
- raising the awareness of all employees to casual sexism in the workplace through self-assessment and training campaigns;
- incorporating gender balance targets within the CSR criteria used to determine components of short- and long-term variable remuneration for the members of the Executive Committee and senior executives of the Group;
- the internal mentoring programme.
Each year steering committees comprising the Human Resources and CSR Directors of the operating divisions and the Corporate division review the implementation of these action plans along with the changes brought about. The Human Resources Committee is responsible for supervising action plans for the full Lagardère group scope, under the authority of the Secretary General of the Lagardère group, who is also a member of the Executive Committee.
These action plans have proved a success, with the proportion of women top executives rising steadily over the period, from 42% at end-2020, 44% at end-2021, 45% at end-2022 (i.e., hitting the target set in 2021 two years ahead of schedule), 46% at end-2023 and 2024 and 47% at end-2025, i.e., the revised target set in 2022. The gender balance policy remains in place, with the aim of maintaining the proportion of women top executives at 45% or more going forward.
Gender Equality Index
The weighted gender equality index is 91/100 for the 2025 data. This weighted index was calculated using the scores obtained by the 18 Group companies subject to this obligation (published on their websites), which represent a workforce of 4,836 employees at 31, december 2025.
Lagardère Ressources (a company that manages all of the Group’s central resources and has 84 employees) obtained a score of 76/100 for the year 2025 for the 2024 data.
- Indicator relating to the pay gap: 21 out of 40;
- Indicator relating to the gap in the rate of individual increases: 35 out of 35;
- Indicator relating to employees having received an increase on their return from maternity leave: 15 out of 15;
- Indicator on the number of employees of the under-represented gender in the top 10 highest paid: 5 out of 10.
As the result was less than 85 points, the company has set improvement targets for each of the indicators for which the maximum score was not achieved:
- Pay gap indicator: the aim is to reduce the pay gap between men and women, in order to achieve an equivalent level of pay between them in each of the equivalent job categories, and to make targeted adjustments where necessary;
- Indicator relating to the number of employees of the under-represented sex among the 10 highest earners: the objective of promoting gender diversity in the workplace is a priority for the company, with the aim of ensuring equality between men and women in management positions.
Management reaffirms its commitment by regularly monitoring these indicators, the effects of which should be visible as soon as the Index 2026 is published.