Due to political disinterest I will not side, but to me this can be seen in two ways.

First view would be the following. Gender inequality is less prevelant (still very much existent) in france, than it is in america. Romance languages are more dynamic in how they interpret the actual gender of a word. As an example, while “les”, the article used to describe multiple of something, is masculine, “les insert female plural” and “les insert male plural” show, that this is nothing more than just referring to a group of something/someone as male, because it’s easier. This is not inherently bad, as we are, thankfully, all pretty similar, so we have grown to accept this as all encumbering and only when someone puts an emphasis on the male gender, is it actually seen as only meaning males.

The second view, rather simple, would be, that they are just not willing to make a decision to be more inclusive as a country (I do not necessarily mean the citizens by this).

Given the current political climate of france, leaning more towards the right, the second view could likely be correct.

Please note, that I am aware of the many issues that arise about what I wrote due to many different moral orientations and am not interested in any “correction” if you will. I do not mean to impede your freedom of speech, I may just not be responding to it :).