EGALITE?
Some interesting statistics came out on the occasion of International Women’s Day on March 8, the most disturbing being that French women’s average gross annual salary is 18.9 percent lower than that of men in the private and semi-public sectors. French women have an extremely high life expectancy: 84.3 years for a girl born in 2008, compared with only 77.5 for a boy. Women still handle 65 percent of household chores, as they did 20 years ago, and they spend an average of 4 hours and 36 minutes per day on shopping, housework and children, twice as much as men. So, French women have to live longer while working harder and getting paid less. La vie est belle (pour les hommes)!
BOOZE NEWS
The legal drinking age in France has been raised to 18 from 16, a response to the recent rise in binge drinking among young people. Some alcohol advertising, which is banned on TV and in the press, will be allowed on the Web.