This year, UTC cel­e­brat­ed Equal­i­ty Month from Feb­ru­ary 25 to March 27. The pro­gramme includ­ed Mas­ter class­es, round tables and an inter­ac­tive con­fer­ence in part­ner­ship with the UTC Foun­da­tion for Innovation.

Each year, the UTC high­lights the val­ues of equal­i­ty, inclu­sion and diver­si­ty through a series of events designed to strength­en dia­logue and pro­mote an equi­table envi­ron­ment with­in the uni­ver­si­ty com­mu­ni­ty. For the 2025 edi­tion of Equal­i­ty Month, many par­tic­i­pants were able to ben­e­fit direct­ly from the var­i­ous meet­ings organ­ised around par­tic­i­pa­tive work­shops and round tables in par­tic­u­lar, all broad­cast live on social net­works and on YouTube®. The round table on March 3 addressed the theme of women in man­age­r­i­al posi­tions, with Sofia Tiar, for­mer exec­u­tive vice-pres­i­dent of Euri­ware, Car­ole Weill, pres­i­dent of La Théière et le Bis­cuit, Marie- Lau­re Codac­cioni, direc­tor of respon­si­ble dig­i­tal ser­vices at mc2i, Céline Hoc­quet, founder of Phare West and Co, and Mathilde Bau­doux, a 2024 UTC grad­u­ate and junior con­sul­tant at Mews Part­ners. For Mathilde Bau­doux, there are less women than men in man­age­ment posi­tions, so the chal­lenge is to act as role mod­els for her female col­leagues and demys­ti­fy the acces­si­bil­i­ty of man­age­ment posi­tions. ‘I also find it inter­est­ing that the term ‘female man­ag­er’ is rarely used. Do we Gal­li­cise the word with “manageuse”or female man­ag­er? You nev­er ask the ques­tion of a man. It helps to make invis­i­ble a role that has no gen­der. I think my gen­er­a­tion has a dif­fer­ent rela­tion­ship to work than it did a few years ago. We’re look­ing for a more mean­ing­ful job that match­es our val­ues, we’re look­ing for our­selves and we’re less reluc­tant to change if we’re not con­vinced. For some time now, man­age­ment has been seen as a job in its own right. And yet we receive very lit­tle train­ing, both in edu­ca­tion and in the work­place, I get the impres­sion. It’s a com­pli­cat­ed job with both HR and tech­ni­cal dimen­sions. Not every­one wants to be a man­ag­er and not every­one is cut out to be a manager.

The web as a territory for expression

The inter­ac­tive con­fer­ence dealt with ‘Lead­er­ship and ener­gies: the place of women’ with Nico­las- Louis Duc­los, lec­tur­er and research sci­en­tist at UTC, and Céline Hoc­quet, founder of Phare West and Co, busi­ness con­sul­tan­cy and coach­ing, and a for­mer man­ag­er in the agri-food indus­try for twelve years. Anoth­er round table took place on March 24, enti­tled ‘Edu­ca­tion­al acces­si­bil­i­ty: how to make teach­ing acces­si­ble to as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble’, with Del­phine Brancherie, lec­tur­er-research sci­en­tist in mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing, David Savourey, lec­tur­er-research sci­en­tist in com­put­er engi­neer­ing and dis­abil­i­ty relay teacher for the core cur­ricu­lum, and Thier­ry Ribeiro, lec­tur­er-research sci­en­tist in process engi­neer­ing. This was an oppor­tu­ni­ty to share expe­ri­ences and pro­pose inno­v­a­tive solu­tions for a more inclu­sive Soci­ety. The month began with a Mas­ter class by painter Céline Cénac. The cho­sen theme was ‘Equal­i­ty in all its forms’. Céline Cénac is deeply com­mit­ted to the cause of women. ‘March is a very impor­tant month for me. And yet Mars is the god of war, a man. It’s incred­i­ble that this month has been cho­sen for women. And UTC’s approach was bril­liant, because it opened the door to all the inequal­i­ties in the world, beyond the inequal­i­ties that affect women’, says the artist, who tack­led the theme through her art. The can­vas is an immense ter­ri­to­ry of expres­sion, of free­dom of expres­sion. There are no lim­its, it’s infi­nite and, above all, it’s a silent art form that, through its silence, can con­vey emo­tions, denounce inequal­i­ties, chal­lenge and defend. It’s an immense force. Trans­mit­ting and awak­en­ing peo­ple to the fact that art encom­pass­es these two forces, ‘infi­nite free­dom of expres­sion’ and ‘the pow­er of silence’, is essential.

KD