Our 4 portraits for the week of March 23rd - #InternationalDayOfWomenRigths

SUMMARY

Marie Petureau: published on March 30th

Jacqueline Cohen-Bacrie: published on March 28th

Raphaëlle Roy: published on March 26th

Amandine Cortier: published on March 24th

Marie Petureau

What position do you hold and what was the decisive factor for you in your career path?

I am a manager at the registrar’s office of the Department of Engineering Programs (DFI). I have various missions such as graduations, administrative oversight of our students and active participation in the graduation ceremonies. I also handle tuition for students in the engineering programs in connection with the financial services and the Department of International Relations (DRI). I also prepare and distribute information on student life to students when they arrive, a bit along the lines of a “welcome desk”. I think the fact that I had founded a microenterprise and had worked internationally really contributed to my professional profile and helped me get this job.

What do you feel is important for the future?

Independence is clearly an important factor.
Being independent doesn’t mean being alone, but rather being able to empower yourself through your skills, knowledge and encounters and what is expected of us.
Professionally, this means renewal, not necessarily in another field, but simply by redefining the outlines of your position, taking initiatives and learning new things.
Personally, I like to know when I need to step outside my comfort zone and to be able to bounce back.

Who are the women who have inspired you, who have been role models for you?

I admire people who show initiative, who promote a message and who are consistent with their way of thinking, they command my respect. I can think of many people here: Letizia Battaglia, the Italian photojournalist specialized in the fight against the Mafia, Vincent Mugnier, the wild animal photographer, author Pénélope Bagieu (comics such as les Culottées), the French composer and singer, Jeanne Added, etc.

What would you say are the levers we need to pull to improve the place and share of women in society, the workforce, and the technological sciences?

Education is a major lever for improving the place and share of women in society and the workforce.
It is a necessary lever that is accessible. It begins by deconstructing the sociocultural worldviews that condition us into having a “gendered” behavior and vision. A classic example: "girls are necessarily not a good at math.” After hearing it, and thinking it, over and over again, they convince themselves of it and don’t pursue, or what’s worse, don’t study the subject at school. This is often an unconscious phenomenon. Sexism becomes engrained. I think I could write more than thirty lines on the subject…
Something that I feel is indispensable to speed up change is equality in wages and in parental leave for both parents!

Jacqueline Cohen-Bacrie

What position do you hold and what was the decisive factor for you in your career path?

Today I am Chief Engineer “France” at the A350 program, which means that my technical perimeter includes ensuring the definition of an aircraft and its evolution and safety throughout it operational life at an airline. Studies, whether in prep schools or at engineering schools, give us strong capacities for work and technical absorption. We then have to build and prove that we know how to move forward, to new positions, new challenges, managing teams or projects, with the ability to manage situations of stress and tension for which women are just as effective, even if they approach these situations in different ways. You have to prove your abilities and find opportunities to meet managers who trust you!!

What do you feel is important for the future?

I have great technical curiosity and I have always believed in skill as a driving force behind progress. We must keep rooted in reality. Today, communication and form are becoming much more important, exacerbated by the development of “digital media”. So, in our technical professions, it is increasingly essential to get back to the basics thanks to our ability to have an overall grasp of the subjects and syntheses acquired throughout our studies and developed in our career paths.
At this stage of my career, it is important for me to be able to transmit my passion for aeronautics, my experience, my values and especially my taste for “a job well done”.

Who are the women who have inspired you, who have been role models for you?

I am envious when I think of the exploits of Jacqueline Auriol and her rival, Jacqueline Cochran. They both flew from record to record for altitude, speed, etc.

But closer to home, it was Suzanne Puech, “SUPAERO 1964” and the only woman in her class, who supported me during those first, decisive years of my career. I worked in her department and shared some wonderful moments with her. I admired her background and how she rose in her career. In her last position as director of studies, which was something exceptional for a women in the late 80s, I was able to observe the lack of consideration from her male colleagues despite her recognized competency. She confided in me that they could be really “hard” sometimes!

What would you say are the levers we need to pull to improve the place and share of women in society, the workforce, and the technological sciences?

I think that in a world of historically male engineers, especially in aeronautics, where macho attitudes were commonplace, things change when you can see women at work. They are their own best ambassadors. Positive discrimination has sped up the movement, although that remains a potential pitfall in my opinion: we must avoid stereotypes. The most important thing is for everyone to put their ambitions forward – the industry is ready to listen now. Despite all this, our society sometimes still has many prejudices, and too many parents still sincerely think that engineer is not a profession for girls.
Your portrait initiative should help us get this message across on a wide scale: Women engineers can achieve their full potential in their profession.

Raphaëlle ROY

What position do you hold and what was the decisive factor for you in your career path?

I’m a Research Professor in Neuroergonomics at the DCAS (Department of Aerospace Vehicle Design and Control), Head of the Certificate in Neuroergonomics and Human Factors program, in charge of several engineer training modules in the Master of Science and an Advanced Master. I also supervise several post-grads, PhD students and interns. I think the decisive factors in my getting this job were my motivation and my adaptability in terms of geographical and topical mobility.

What do you feel is important for the future?

I think it is important for the government and institutions to continue putting their trust in researchers and teachers. They especially need to increase their assistance by allocating more resources, notably to safeguard jobs so that staff can achieve personal fulfilment, which can’t help but have a positive impact on the quality of research and teaching.

Who are the women who have inspired you, who have been role models for you?

I’m not the kind of person who is a fan, so it’s hard for me to identify who has influenced me the most between all the women in my family, my friends and colleagues, or famous people. But I think I have been lucky to grow up in Europe in the 20th and 21st centuries, and to have received training from people with a passion for their profession, which has enabled me to have healthy models who have given me a positive outlook in my way of thinking. In fact, I always have a hard time understanding how we can still have so much gender inequality in France in 2020.

What would you say are the levers we need to pull to improve the place and share of women in society, the workforce, and the technological sciences?

Transparency. It seems to me that it is crucial for the salaries of staff of all genders and all ranks to be made public in order to shine a light on pay inequalities, in the private sector and especially – something that is rarely talked about – in the public sector. This openness is all the more important for contract employees because their status makes room for more pay variability, both upon hiring and when renewing contracts, and for civil servants. Once this transparency is put in place, as is the case in Canada, for example, we need to work on the balance between work life and private life. I think we can take great inspiration from the Nordic countries that stress work effectiveness rather than time spent at work, and which give value to the time allocated to private life and its benefits on the quality of work.

Amandine CORTIER

What do you do at ISAE-SUPAERO and what was the decisive factor for you in your career path?

I’m an engineering student in my second year. I got into the school after a two-year prep school program and thanks to my good level in science.

What do you feel is important for the future?

I would like to feel a commitment to my work and to be ethically in line with what I do while maintaining a fulfilling private life. For me, it is essential to constantly work on new projects that are motivating and stimulating, both in my work life and in the private sphere.
More generally, I think the major challenge for the coming years is global warming. We are fully aware of its devastating effects. The huge challenge ahead of us will be to limit these effects as much as possible, starting right now and in all fields.

Who are the women who have inspired you, who have been role models for you?

I admire many women for their commitment and their determination, notably Florence Arthaud, the French navigator and the first woman to win the Route du Rhum transatlantic boat race. It was a triumph at a time when the vast majority of the sailing world was male. But more generally, the people who inspire me the most are those I see every day, my friends, acquaintances, my professors, etc. People who always have a smile on their face, lots of projects on their minds and overflowing with energy in all situations. They are people who know how to get involved in a project they believe in and who do what it takes to succeed thanks to their enthusiasm and their motivation. I think the first step toward success for a project is determined by our state of mind – the better it is, the better our chances of success.

What would you say are the levers we need to pull to improve the place and share of women in society, the workforce, and the technological sciences?

The best way to improve the place of women in society is to stop trying to force women to blend in with the image of the traditional male worker. Instead of constantly trying to erase the differences between the sexes, we need to accept them and make the most of them. I don’t think the ideal model would be a world in which there are as many women as men in the technological sciences, but rather a world in which each person can choose their profession without social pressures, without any biases, and be fully satisfied with it. Today it is obvious that we need to keep up the work on raising awareness so that girls look at scientific professions in the same way as boys do. But we have to promote all those professions with a more feminine side, such as assistance to the elderly and ill, serving others, etc. an effort that is still not being made in my opinion. A woman or a man should not feel prouder to be an engineer than to be a social worker. I think that society in France today gives more importance to historically masculine professions.