Lyon to adopt the first “gender budget” in France

Objective: to ensure that each budget line benefits men and women equally

On 25 March this year Lyon is set to adopt the first-ever gender budget in the country, reports L’Observateur. The idea, put forward by the Green mayor Gregory Doucet, is to ensure that the public money spent by the city does not foster gender stereotypes and that each budget line benefits women and men to an equal extent.

Lyon goes 50:50 on public money

The gendered budget is nothing new, points out the French edition – on the contrary, it has been in existence since 1984 in Australia and in 1988 in the UK. More countries followed in their footsteps over the next decades but in France the phenomenon is to be seen for the first time only in 2021, pioneered in the third-largest city – Lyon.

Thus, the local authorities will carefully evaluate each line of the 2021 budget and see if it benefits men and women equally. City representatives, speaking about the project for Le Parisien, gave the example of open-air sports fields, which are currently mostly frequented by men – football or basketball fields, gyms, etc.

The idea is therefore to rearrange these spaces so that they favour equal access to all citizens and that women feel comfortable at these facilities, to arrange spaces for leisure activities, like gardening, for example.

Prior to making any interventions, however, the city will first conduct an extensive assessment of the current situation, helped by a specialised firm. This concerns the 850 million euros for investment and operational costs for 2021, in particular, sports, public spaces, cultural establishments, district town halls and public procurement.

Once the analysis is completed, the city will make the appropriate adjustments to restore the balance, is it has already been done for sports. For example, the female’s football club Olympique Lyonnais enjoys fewer subsidies and less stadium seats are purchased by the municipality, in comparison to the male team. This year both amounts will be made equal.