Increasing female presence across the professions

Constance, why is increasing the number of women across the professions a priority at GRTgaz?

Women are currently under-represented at GRTgaz, as they are in industry as a whole. Increasing the number of women in our professions is thus a major issue at stake towards building equity at GRTgaz, so as to improve performance and social progress within the company. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of female applicants, particularly in the technical professions, which are seen as male-dominated and don't attract many women. Although the percentage of women in the workforce has risen by more than 3 points in 8 years, this is not enough and we must continue to take action.

Has this been a long-standing commitment at GRTgaz?

Yes! Since 2015, GRTgaz has held the AFNOR Diversity label, which recognises our commitment to diversity. The current company agreement on gender equality in the workplace is another example of GRTgaz’s mobilisation in favour of women, just like our women's network, Les Elles du Réseau, created in 2010. Last but not least, none of this would be possible without the support of the highest levels of the company and the entire management team, who are very committed to this issue.

What is GRTgaz’s strategy for including more women in its workforce?

GRTgaz needs to be attractive, in particular by combating persistent prejudices about the place of women in the industry. The company needs to shine the spotlight on women who succeed, who inspire and who also encourage the younger generation to consider careers in our professions. In this respect, I would like to pay tribute to the work of our female mentors involved in the associations “Elles bougent” [Women in Motion] and “Capital Filles” [Girl Capital], who visit schools to share their experience and encourage young girls to embark on careers in science or technology.

As well as recruitment, the company needs to focus on retaining staff. Equality in rights is good – equality in action is even better. Concretely, this means not only promoting women's access to all professions and levels of responsibility, but also ensuring equal pay and combating discrimination and sexist comments. It also implies taking into account work-life balance, for example through support for managing parenthood. The challenges are multifactorial. At the end of the day, equality in the workplace benefits everyone and should therefore be a matter for both women and men.

What does this mean in practice?

Managers are essential relays when it comes to changing mind-sets. But before you can progress, you need to know where you are, hence GRTgaz’s decision to conduct a study on gender diversity among its managers, in the hopes of identifying the gender stereotypes, preconceptions and prejudices that might linger in recruitment decisions and throughout women's careers. The aim was to reinforce virtuous practices and find new ways to improve the representation of women. In another example, the company has set up a mentoring system for new recruits to help them integrate into GRTgaz. It has been a great success, and the feedback has been very positive! In fact, a new “graduating class” will come through the programme this year. Further illustrating its commitment, GRTgaz has introduced mobility reviews for women to anticipate departures as early as possible and build coherent career pathways within the company.

You said that stepping up women’s presence was “everyone's business”: how do you get as many people involved as possible?

GRTgaz has killed two birds with one stone by concurrently launching an external call for projects and an internal innovation challenge to find ideas and thus recruit and retain more women. Many ideas came in, some of which we have chosen to put into practice. One of them was for a project using artificial intelligence to help the company write more inclusive job advertisements. The call also led to a series of videos of women, entitled “Je suis de celles” [“I’m one of the women who...”], who talk about their professions and careers in an inspiring way. My aim was to give a voice to women from GRTgaz with a wide range of backgrounds who shared a desire to promote greater female numbers in GRTgaz’s industrial and technical professions. A total of 11 women took up the challenge, and the series was broadcast on the social media, with the aim of generating as many female vocations as possible.

On 25 January 2024, GRTgaz's new Managing Director, Sandrine Meunier, signed the “#StOpE to ordinary sexism” initiative on National Anti-Sexism Day. What do you hope from that signing?

By signing this agreement, GRTgaz joins a group of 270 organisations committed to the same objective: instituting best practices and concrete actions to reduce ordinary sexism in the workplace over the long term. Out of the 8 actions promoted by this initiative, GRTgaz’s first is “to apply the principle of zero tolerance to sexist comments”. The aim is to be ever more effective in the fight against sexism!

Percentage of women on GRTgaz’s Executive Committee (Comex) in 2023

The Group is ahead of the target set by the Rixain Law, which requires all companies with more than 1,000 employees to have at least 30% women on their Comex by March 2026.
Sources: GRTgaz

GRTgaz’s gender equality index (Egapro) in 2023

This is the fifth year in a row that the Group has achieved this level.
Sources: GRTgaz, February 2024