“I went from a comfortable office job to that of a sewer worker.
And I don't regret it for a second."
At 42, Séverine is one of those rare women who work as a sewer worker in Paris.
They are only about ten out of 250 agents to wade daily 6 meters underground, in the narrow conduits which enamel the underground network of the capital.
Rats, cockroaches and excrement, "not even afraid", says this dynamic quadra, short hair, while putting on her antibacterial cosmonaut suit.
“When I was younger, I had seen a report on the sewers.
I found it fascinating in terms of engineering and construction.
And then one day, I learned that there was a competition to become a sewer worker.
I applied and I was taken,” says Séverine.
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She then left the comfort of her executive position in an organic brand for a completely different world, sometimes dangerous and above all completely unhealthy.
“It's true that you have to have a strong heart when you go down.
But you get used to it… Fortunately, you hardly have any smells anymore thanks to the masks that you have to wear systematically.
Because before 2016, it wasn't.
And the risks of catching diseases were much greater before, ”she underlines.
Like her, Karine found her vocation in the job of sewer worker.
"It's true that it's not trivial as an office," smiles this forties, who alternates between descents and surface surveillance.
“When I arrived in 2010, there was only one woman sewer worker.
I was the second.
In the beginning, you had to find your place in an exclusively male environment.
But it went well, I showed what I was capable of.
And since then, there are more and more of us.
Maybe one day we'll be as many women as men, it would be nice to have parity in the sewers!
".