Black and Executives in France : Straw Women?

In France , the managers assume autonomy, weak hierarchical constraints and progression within the organization ( Flocco 2006 ) . Paradoxically they are both filled and devoid of these attributes. They have a power which is not real. They can act with a limited and confusing scope. Their initiatives remain uncertain. ( Cousin , 2008). A current  qualitative survey  with Black women graduates  in public and private French companies provides some answers to the following questions : Do they actually chose their own rules of action? Their potential autonomy is it effective and proven ? What are the forms of objective and subjective requirements which they face? Are they the actresses of their own careers? ( Flocco , 2006).  In labor relations, the "ethnic imbalance", issues of sex, class and race, lead some employees to refuse the authority of people that they perceive as dominated ( De Rudder , 2000). Than,  Black women graduates often occupy functional jobs with no command and / or financial responsibility, when they are not isolated from  collective work and management. As if these executives were “straw women”, who do not really have the power, but a limited scope and  uncertain initiatives. However they allow France to show a diversity and equal opportunities façade.
This paper is based on biographical interviews, an intersectional methodology and a feminist and post-colonial approach. It draws on studies conducted in the Netherlands and the USA with highly qualified bicultural Black women (Essed 1984, 1991 2004) to analyze the aspects of labour cross cultural relationships in France. It asks questions of leadership style and values related to  diversity, gender, age,  disabilities, etc . It testifies pseudo success stories of women who are faced with the role reversal in the home and workplace and in the social order of invisibility .