The Fondation Egalité Mixité was founded by Axa, Engie, Michelin and Orange.
SKEMA's current project with the foundation promotes workplace equality among students in the school’s three French campuses. The project is called “Everything is possible”.
Three strands are currently being implemented: awareness raising about gender stereotypes, live-my-life sessions that include meetings with women role models and equality workshops. These sessions are carried out by the “Chaire Femmes et Entreprises” team co-directed by Eliane Bacha, Stéphanie Chasserio, Corinne Poroli and Philippe Pailot, with Marie-Paule Moreau as project coordinator.
Raising awareness about gender stereotypes takes place as part of a course in sociology that includes six hours on the subject. The course is taken by all PGE first year students. These sessions are also evaluated scientifically by a longitudinal study, part of the team’s action research approach.
Live-my-life meetings with female role models: On each campus, 20 student volunteers have a day in the working life of a woman entrepreneur, manager, director, or head of finance or legal department. By meeting women who work in such or who work in areas traditionally considered the reserve of males, students question traditional gendered career choices, disrupt traditional definitions of certain job categories and create a context that helps to move boundaries and encourages women students to redefine their career possibilities.
These sessions have already been successfully tested with students from June to September 2017 and will be relaunched on a larger scale from November 2017 to June 2018 on SKEMA’s three French campuses. Possibilities for enlarging this experience to Brazil are currently being studied and many professional networks are being explored with this project in view. Furthermore, participating students can claim credit for “Special achievement” if they write a report on their experience.
Equality workshops are organised on SKEMA’s three French campuses (three workshops per campus per year). These are aimed particularly at students in M1 and M2. Students participate on a voluntary basis. The workshops are based on collective intelligence and enable researchers, students and representatives of the business world to work together on workplace equality and formulate the necessary resources to implement this in managerial and/or entrepreneurial practice. The workshops allow the various participants to think together in an active and participative approach.
The workshops will be held on the following dates: in Lille 14 November 2017, 16 January and 20 March 2018; in Paris 5 December 2017, 6 February and 7 March 2018; in Sophia-Antipolis 30 November 2017 and 8 February and 27 March 2018.
Equality at work is a major concern for many companies. SKEMA is thus part of this trend putting its expertise on this theme to good use.
Need more info? Contact Marie-Paule Moreau