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    • A look back at International Women’s and Girls’ Day at Sciences 2025 at the UBE

    A look back at International Women’s and Girls’ Day at Sciences 2025 at the UBE

    On February 10th 2025, Université Bourgogne Europe celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. To mark the occasion, various awareness-raising activities were offered by the Copil Égalité and UBE’s Service PS QVT to students and staff.

    On Monday 10th February, Université Bourgogne Europe celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science! Organised by the Copil Égalité and the Service PS QVT, this awareness-raising day highlighted women and girls with a passion for computer science.

    The day began in room 219 of the Droit-Lettres building on the Dijon campus, with a speech by Edith Salès-Wuillemin, vice-president in charge of Quality of Life at Work and Gender Equality. In her general introduction, she began by discussing various aspects of the position of women in higher education, and in particular, in IT.

    Fields of study that are still strongly gendered

    The relationship between women’s self-confidence and their success at school are factors that influence their study path. While it is easier for men to opt for vocational courses, the majority of women tend to choose general and technological subjects.

    The vice-president went on to point out that among the various technical fields chosen by women, engineering came last among the various fields generally chosen. At the top of the list are health and social studies, followed by languages, literature and the humanities: in 2021, 31% of women were enrolled in basic science courses (mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, sociology).

    Women in higher education

    This general introduction also made it possible to present the limitations that women in higher education encounter in the course of their careers. Women are often victims of imposter syndrome, which is further underlined by the link between gender stereotypes, the glass ceiling and the glass escalator, which is a phenomenon of salary discrimination linked to gender stereotypes.

    Initiatives undertaken by UBE

    Université Bourgogne Europe offers a range of initiatives to raise awareness of egalitarian issues and the role of women: awareness-raising days, conferences, forum theatre, awareness-raising for selection committees, adapted maternity leave, facilitating work from home, setting up a prevention and action plan against Sexist and Sexual Violence (SGBV), support for female staff to encourage their professional development, managerial training to raise awareness of women’s issues, Quality of Working Life (QWL) surveys to include impostor syndrome (which will then give rise to a score to compare the results for women and men), a series of mentoring initiatives to support female staff by more experienced (mixed) colleagues. Following her speech, Edith Salès-Wuillemin pointed out that the next gender equality plan will be presented in 2025.

    Throughout the year, the UBE community has the opportunity to take part in actions in line with the gender equality plan.

    Conference, round table and quiz

    The morning continued with a quiz from the Pavillon des Sciences on the issue of women in computing. In the afternoon, Marinette Savonnet, Senior Lecturer at the UFR Sciences et Techniques, presented a history of women in computing and then analysed the statistics on the presence of women in computing and computing studies at the UBE.

    A field deserted by women

    Since the 1980s, Marinette Savonnet has reported a real decline in the number of women studying computer science, due to a lack of representation. According to the CDEFI (Conférence des directeurs des écoles françaises d’ingénieurs), women account for 28% of student enrolment in French engineering schools, with only 15% of these enrolled in computer science courses, which are the least attractive to women (source: Gender Scan 2023 survey: a declining proportion of women in STEM subjects).

    From Ada Lovelace (the first computer scientist) to Marion Créhange (one of the first people to defend a thesis in computer science in 1961), this conference was an opportunity to review the history and representation of women in computer science studies.

    The day ended with a round-table discussion at which Marinette Savonnet, two students studying for a degree in IT at the UBE and four staff from the Digital Services Department shared their experiences and feelings about being a woman in the IT world.