March 07, 2025
Bulletin interne de l'Institut Pasteur
International Women's Day: initiatives and events to further strengthen our commitment to equality
International Women's Day, celebrated every year on March 8, is an opportunity to reaffirm the Institut Pasteur's commitment to gender equality in the workplace and shine a light on initiatives, strategies and events in this area.
The role of women at the Institut Pasteur with the Rêv'Elles association Three questions to Hajar Guedira and Claire Pujol, Institut Pasteur staff involved in Rêv'Elles
More than five years ago, Nicolas Dray, a scientist in the Zebrafish Neurogenetics Unit, in collaboration with the Career Development Department (CARE, formerly MAASCC), launched a collaboration between the Institut Pasteur and the Rêv'Elles association. The aim was to organize events to raise awareness on campus. Since 2013, the Rêv'Elles association has been offering innovative career guidance programs for girls from working-class backgrounds. Every year since 2020, the Institut Pasteur has enabled groups of girls to come onto campus to find out about a wide range of different professions.
For this edition of the newsletter, to mark International Women's Day, the team decided to speak to Hajar Guedira and Claire Pujol, who are involved in the Rêv'Elles association. We asked them three questions to find out more about their work, their commitment to women in science and more specifically their role in Rêv'Elles.
Three questions to Hajar and Claire
What is your role at the Institut Pasteur – what does it involve?
I am in charge of partnerships and accreditations in the CARE Department (Career Development Service for Scientists) and in the Department for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). My role is to foster links with research institutions, companies and other stakeholders to open up new prospects for early career scientists and introduce them to different career opportunities. At the same time, I aim to improve their working conditions by introducing labels and initiatives to encourage greater transparency in recruitment and promote a greater awareness of diversity, equity and inclusion issues in our practices.
I am an OREX, a CNRS scientist at the Institut Pasteur. The aim of my research is to understand how some errors in our genes can disrupt brain function and lead to serious diseases.
Can you tell us a little more about your commitment to gender equality?
The question of gender equality and related issues is part of my day-to-day lived experience, especially as I spent my first twenty years in Morocco, where there are still inequalities at several levels. My school in Rabat had an initiative to enable women from rural backgrounds to pursue higher education studies, and this awakened a greater awareness in me – it strengthened my belief that education is the key to guaranteeing a fairer future for us all.
Rêv'Elles is a remarkable association as it combines advocacy for women with support for people from less privileged backgrounds – two causes that I am particularly passionate about.
The turning point for me was when I came back from my postdoc. During my PhD in Strasbourg and my postdoc in Sweden and Germany, I was always surrounded by inspiring women, role models of strength and success. But when I came back to Paris, I realized that this was not the reality everywhere.
Today, as a scientist and citizen, I feel it is my turn to share the values and lessons that my supervisors instilled in me. I want to encourage young women, to show them that they belong in these arenas and that they can aim high, regardless of their background or their origins.
How does this play out in your work with the Rêv'Elles association?
When Nicolas Dray talked to me about the Rêv'Elles association, it was clear that I had to get involved too. I am convinced that education is a basic right and I fully support this initiative, which opens up research careers and related roles to young women. For the past few years, we have organized an annual visit to the Institut Pasteur – a real highlight that I now coordinate with Claire. I have been lucky to rope in wonderful colleagues from a variety of different professions – communications, CeRIS, HR, DARRI –, who generously take the time to share their backgrounds with these girls in a fun and inspiring way. Over and above my work with the organization, I hugely appreciate the opportunity to chat to these girls, to understand their background, their hopes and desires, the challenges they face, and to take the time to get to know them better over lunch. These encounters and conversations are so valuable, and they remind me why I am committed to Rêv'Elles. I can't wait to meet them again at the end of April!
My role is part of a real team effort! We organize a day event to enable the girls to find out about the different professions at the Institut Pasteur, and the morning is devoted to jobs directly linked to science. Nicolas Dray, who launched the collaboration with Rêv'Elles more than five years ago, will present the zebrafish model. Myriam Aouiti Trabelsi and Diane Martias Danhin will then take them on a tour of various technology core facilities. Finally, Claire Maudet-Crépin and Khadija Oukacha will open up their laboratories so that they can find out about different careers in science.
As well as the collaboration between the Institut Pasteur and Rêv'Elles that began a few years ago, on February 13 the founder and President of Rêv'Elles, Athina Marmorat, also came to speak on campus for the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This collaboration is now firmly established, and a future edition of the newsletter will look back on the latest chapter with a report on the meeting set to take place on campus by new female students.
International Women's Day: March 7 and 10 at the Institut Pasteur
As part of Equity Month and International Women's Rights Day, Institut Pasteur wishes to reaffirm its commitment to an inclusive and equitable working environment for all its employees. On this occasion, each and every one of you is invited to take part in two events:
March 7: Symposium "Scientific excellence: what if the answer was inclusion?"
In collaboration with the L'Oréal Foundation, DCI invites you today, from 2pm, to an afternoon of talks and exchanges in the CIS auditorium. The theme of the day is “Scientific excellence: what if inclusion was the key?”, and will highlight the importance of inclusivity and equity, particularly in terms of gender, in achieving scientific excellence.
For further information, see the February 14 issue of the newsletter
March 10: Final of the public speaking competition for women
As a reminder, the Institut Pasteur is hosting the Voix d'Oratrices association on March 10 in the François Jacob auditorium for the final of their eloquence competition dedicated to women's public speaking (read the BIP of January 24, 2025).
The final, in which 2 Pasteur women will compete, starts at 6pm.
Everyone is welcome to attend. We look forward to seeing many of you there to celebrate and promote women's eloquence!
Publication of the Professional Gender Equality Index
In early March, the Institut Pasteur published its Professional Gender Equality Index for 2024, as required by French law since 2019, achieving a score of 99/100.
While this outstanding result – on a par with last year – reflects a successful collective effort on the issue of gender equality, we need to maintain our focus in this area. The Institut Pasteur remains committed to pursuing and stepping up its gender equality policies, especially by ensuring that women have access to a fair promotion system at all levels of our institution.
Representation on governing bodies at the Institut Pasteur is 42.9% for women and 57.1% for men (i.e. 9 women and 12 men), taking into account all members of the Executive Board (COMESP) and Senior Management Board (CODIR) as a whole. This represents an increase of more than a third in the representation of women (+35.76%) compared with 2023.
Find out more - ePasteur