She remembers that her first difficulties in the industrial sector she entered, which was very masculine, were not linked to her status as a woman, at least not directly.
“I didn't know how the world of work worked, how to assert myself, to be recognized, to be listened to.
Until the day I attended a conference of Grandes Écoles au feminine (
associative network
), which helped me enormously.
» Hélène Grussaute Nghiem, 52, is today director of the Chantereine factory, in Thourotte (Oise), of the French giant Saint-Gobain, a site which manufactures flat glass.
But by taking on responsibilities, around twenty years ago, the young executive – a graduate of Centrale Paris, in a class where there were only around ten women – very quickly realized that she was part of a visible minority. .
“When I was alone in a meeting at a table of men, I had the impression of being listened to like
the woman who was speaking
,” she remembers.
It seems to me that the themes I addressed, probably because they were not yet mentioned very often, were not considered important.
I no longer had this feeling when there were several women in the meetings.
»
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