Fighting against gender inequalities with WoMen[at]GEM

'At GEM, we believe that women and men must work together in order to fight prejudices and stereotypes and create a more balanced work environment. That's why WoMen[at]GEM was launched in June 2017' explain Susan Nallet and Mark Smith, its project leaders. Susan is Director of Careers, Alumni & Employer Relations at GEM and Mark is Dean of faculty.

The name of the WoMen[at]GEM project bears this conviction, with two capital letters in the word WoMen, W and M. The role and awareness of men as well as women being one of the means of action prioritised by the project. WoMen[at]GEM is part of GEM's strategy to become a School for Business for Society. In other words: to do more than just training and research and to provide concrete solutions for major human challenges.

4 major ambitions for the next 5 years

• The training of responsible citizens in order to prepare future managers to recognize and face the challenges of parity and bias in the professional environment
• Equal access to opportunities for GEM students, alumni and collaborators
• Assist GEM's corporate partners and society at large to move towards gender equality through research, recruitment and exchange of good practices
• Finally, to be aligned with its convictions, GEM wishes to become a model and a reference for gender equality among French and European Business Schools

the 10 first accomplishments of woman[at]gem

• Approx. 50:50 parity on the executive committee of GEM & parity of students on all programs
• Creation of a company crèche
• A dedicated research Chair: FERE (Women and Economic Renewal) which aims to contribute to the development and economic renewal of European territories by focusing on the contribution of women
• A dedicated GEM Alumni community, in association with “Her Century” (global organization for the advancement of women), which offers a series of mentoring activities
• Career workshops for students and graduates: sexism workshop, focus group with students, speed-networking interactive session and personal branding
• A special issue of GEM Alumni Mag: Gender balance & Performance
• Several dedicated events including a conference "Ordinary sexism: from denial to visibility" led by Brigitte Grésy, General Secretary of the Higher Council of Professional Equality between Women and Men, which highlighted the basics of sexism at work: how it operates, its consequences and how to respond to it.
• Creation of the student group "Re[at]gir" whose objective is to educate and coach students against gender stereotypes - particularly in the context of student associations and multicultural environments
• The Doctoral School published a special issue on "women and doctoral education” in 2017 on the challenges and benefits of a doctoral training for women
• GEM teachers have been encouraged to integrate gender equality topics

key actions to come for 2018

• Encourage gender-based preparation for job market
• Promote equal representation of women and men in all activities, levels and categories
• Mentoring to help women advance their careers
• Diffuse information on the rights of victims of bias or harassment
• Encouraging research at national and European level on equality
• Communicate on women's success in business and gender-balance initiatives
• Gender equality into the training of teachers