We are taking advantage of Women in Digital Day, which takes place on April 17, to take stock of the place of women within Adwanted Group.
Even if the figure is growing, women are still under-represented in France in scientific and technical fields or in engineering schools. Currently, there are only around 30% women in these courses leading to engineering positions. We therefore wanted to take stock of the situation in order to measure the place of women within our company.
Within the group, the gender balance is almost balanced with 52.2% men and 47.8% women. However, by focusing on the IT department, we realize that women are only represented at 34%.
On this day of women in digital, we decided to put women in the spotlight. Our wish is to share with you the portraits of Mélanie and Cristina, both employees of the Group.
Mélanie, 23 years old, is a Graphic Designer/Web Designer within the Adwanted Group. She has continued her work-study program with us since 2018. She is currently in the final year of a master's degree in “Communication Business Manager ”.
Cristina, 51, graduated from an engineering school in 1993 in Romania, joined CSE in 2001 as a Development Engineer then moved to a position of Project Manager.
Two people from different generations and cultures brought together by two roots: a career in new technologies and being a woman!
Discovery of new technologies
Cristina discovered computing in 1984 when she entered high school, specializing in the Maths Info course. It is thanks to her Computer Science teacher, his way of thinking and explaining algorithms on paper that she will deepen her knowledge and continue her studies in the field of computer science.
Mélanie also discovered computers when she entered high school, but thanks to social networks. At the end of third year, her personal computer in hand, she cracks Photoshop and begins to develop her portfolio (if you want to take a look, it is accessible here ).
For Cristina, the path is clear despite the fact that she had little opportunity to touch a computer during her high school studies. Indeed, in Romania, resources in schools were meager and did not allow them to be equipped with computers.
It is therefore on specially formatted paper charts that Cristina creates her code. She then sent it to data entry operators, who transferred it to punched cards and passed “ these pieces of cardboard ” through the computer in order to transcribe the code and obtain the result. It was possible that the data entry operators would make typos, so there was a back and forth.
After high school, Cristina joined an engineering school where she could finally work on real machines made available by the school. However, one last obstacle: the queue. Cristina will have her first personal computer as soon as she leaves engineering school.
For Mélanie, it's a different story. Her big brother, 8 years older, reinforces her desire to pursue a career in IT. Indeed, the latter begins development studies and shows him that this is possible. Mélanie is taking a Bac S but learns a lot on her own. Apart from his brother, few people around him know anything about computers.
She codes on her own, creates websites and develops her creative side! Encouraged by her loved ones and driven by her mother's pride, she joined a BTS Multichannel Communication Graphic Designer on a work-study basis.
Their educational background
Mélanie does not feel like she has suffered discrimination in relation to her career choice, whether from those around her or during her studies.
Currently, the proportion of women in its class is the majority (2/3 women, 1/3 men). Although women are represented in her course and she does not feel like she has suffered any inequalities, the fact remains that certain prejudices continue to exist within the school.
Indeed, according to Mélanie, some speakers have already expressed their astonishment: “ Usually the promotion is homogeneous but this year is an exception ”. For Mélanie, this could be explained by the fact that there are creative options.
Men head towards more technical courses while women turn towards the creative part. It is clear that during group work, the women are at “ Créa ” while the men are at “ integration ”.
Mélanie is interested and has very good knowledge in both areas. It's strange but it still surprises more than one person: " There's always a bit of distrust when I say that I know how to do integration, then I show them and then they're the ones who come to get me when They don’t know how to do it .”
During the conversation, Mélanie also notices that she has never had a teacher or speaker in subjects relating to new technologies. “ Even when I search for tutorials, they are men, whether in coding or graphics! The people I follow are only men.”
Cristina never felt any discrimination during her school career. In Romania, the technical subsidiaries already had a 35% female population in the 1990s. While France is struggling to reach these figures in 2021. Cristina explains this by the fact that Romania is a former communist country: “ There has few positive points, but this is one: In Romania, women occupy the same place as men. There is no inequality between the sexes in accessing the desired higher education! ".
Throughout her high school career, she had more female teachers than male teachers. She also had female professors during her graduate studies, although male professors were the majority. “ In Romania, a woman metallurgical engineer was not alone in her class in 1990. ”
Their professional journey
Cristina's professional career began in Romania. It begins within a research institute which has a homogeneous IT department. Then a start-up which has a technical team where women are largely represented: 4 women for 2 men.
The question that Cristina asks herself but which she has never been able to answer concerns remuneration: Is the salary the same between a man and a woman with an equivalent skill level and position? This question did not come naturally to her, she asked herself because one of her colleagues had left her previous company because she had a 10% lower salary gap compared to her male colleague (Skills, seniority and equivalent positions).
When Cristina arrived at CSE in 2000, she was shocked to find that the IT department in which she was going to work had only one woman. She becomes aware that in France, women are not or too little represented in technical positions. Since then, Isabelle has joined the team and brought her technical skills.
Mélanie, for her part, is at the start of her professional career. For the moment, she has only had to look for work-study positions. She does not encounter any obstacles in her search for a work-study contract, but realizes with a little hindsight that only creative missions are offered to her to the detriment of more technical integration missions: “ Perhaps because I am female ? » We have the right to ask ourselves this.
During his first experience, there was little room for his leadership: “ I had no say ”. Mélanie then divides her working time between the tasks provided for in her contract and secretarial work. She still doesn't know if it was a lack of trust from her employers or if it had to do with her gender.
When she arrived at Adwanted, she found herself surrounded by men within her team. Indeed, Mélanie was the only woman to be part of the IT team in the Lille office. But as she says: “ In Lille, although there is no parity, I never felt excluded. The boys have always integrated me very well. » When I talk to her about her career, Mélanie is not afraid: “ I don't think that in an agency or in a start-up, there is this kind of barrier ”.
However, when I ask her her feelings about the evolution of the place of women in this sector she answers me: “ Evolution remains difficult, in graphics there is an evolution but in development there is no. For example at my brother's work there are two female developers on a team of 15-20 developers . »
Their messages
According to Mélanie, “ we tend to associate development with a geek who will code and play video games whereas for me, for example, video games don't interest me! The image of a man without social relationships. » According to her, we do not present this type of sector to women in high school.
From high school, they do not necessarily have their place in scientific fields: “ In Bac S, my class was an exception because it had 4 guys for 20 girls and we were told that the other S class which had more guys was stronger! »
“ Women have as much place as men, we must fight and not give up, search until we find!” We have to get started because we can do it! »
“ I would be interested in giving integration and web courses in schools to encourage women. »
For Cristina, all girls who are good at mathematics and who want to do this job should give it a try! “ They have a professional highway ahead of them with IT professions. »
“ No reason, no thing should hold them back ”
“ We are in 2021 and there are no jobs dedicated to men or women! Men's gray matter is the same as women's! »
Cristina is still surprised that we need a month dedicated to the fight against inequalities between men and women, or that there are still salary gaps of 20% on average between the two sexes!
If you would like to see the offers available at Adwanted Group, go to our Recruitment page !
At Adwanted Group, equal opportunities are our cornerstone. Convinced that our differences are our strength, we believe that everyone deserves fair treatment and equal opportunities, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, origin or disability.
For further
• https://expertes.fr : Les Expertes is a French organization created in 2015 which aims to improve the visibility of women in public space and in the media
• https://clairelevans.com : The Untold Story of the Women who Made the Internet – C L. Evans
