Tuesday 12th February 2019

This year we organised together with other colleagues at Sorbonne University the Paris IUPAC-Global Breakfast.

The international event was part of the celebration activities organised by the IUPAC. It’s aim was to: “assist women chemists to expand their network of contacts, both locally and internationally. Women at different stages of their individual careers can inform each other about their career progress, and together explore opportunities, in professional development and in research or teaching horizons.”

Our event celebrated “100 years, 100 Women in Chemistry” with the female community of chemists working and studying at the Sorbonne. These included undergraduate, postgraduate students and a whole range of faculty, technical and administrative staff from the Chemistry department of Sorbonne University.

The half day programme began with a friendly breakfast followed by a series of interactive activities, such as: an Expo-photos entitled “Chimistes@SU”, a series of talks following the popular french format “Ma Thèse en 180 seconds” and a session of speed-round tables. The Global Breakfast gave us the opportunity to recognise the female scientists involved in the life of the faculty and who bring the teaching, research and innovation of Sorbonne University and France to the highest level.

The portrait exposition showcased 20 members of our scientific community, with the intention of demonstrating to students the diversity of career options that Chemistry opens the door to. These portraits also aimed to show the “personal” side aswell, with a section for hobbies, interests and personality traits. AND, as we are also celebrating the 150th anniversary of the periodic table each portrait included their favourite element.

The Paris Global Breakfast was inaugurated by the Dean of Science and Engineering at Sorbonne Université –Corinne Aubert (who is also a chemist!). Attendees were able to enjoy the photo exposition with a cup of coffee, tea, and of course some french viennoiseries!

Next, a round of five participants: Stéphanie Halbert (Associate Professor), Nebewia Griffete (Associate Professor), Jutta Rieger (CNRS Researcher), Karen de la Vega Hernandez (PhD student), Julia Contreras (CNRS Researcher) and Corinne Chanéac (Professor) took part in sharing their research following the popular format of ‘Ma Thèse en 180s’.

The chemistry discussion continued in the form of ‘speed- round tables’. A total of ten chemists hosted each a small group; sharing their research, career choice and personal experiences. This was followed by five more who discussed their role in management and leadership positions such as: Directors of a doctoral school, master programs, human resources, and presidents of the teaching and scientific councils. The session provided the students with an invaluable insight into the potential career options they can pursue with a Chemistry degree and what each post entails.

Throughout the event the participants were also made to question and give their opinions on the roles and challenges that Women in Science face in our time. The last round of discussion was dedicated to discuss the following points:

• Are self-censorship and underestimation the only sources of women’s lack of recognition in science?
• Adopting a ‘professional’ image (as a woman): the key to work-life balance?
• Sexist prejudices: How to recognize and fight against them.
• What actions should be undertaken to empower women chemists?
• Imposing gender quotas: a necessary evil?

This last topic brought about an intense discussion, with some ideas, opinions and thoughts coming up again and again regardless of the subject in question. Some of our most important take-home messages are:

• Gender quotas ARE a necessary evil a this point; we must start with decreasing the gender gap forcefully in order to pave the way for a more ‘natural’ gender diversity to take place.

• We would like to be acknowledged and selected for our skills and experience, not just as the ‘token female’, as it often happens.

• We need to take a stand against sexist comments, not only when subjected to one but also when witnessing one.

• We must be prepared to confront our own biases, as we sometimes tend to be more critical towards our own gender.

And finally, we came to the conclusion that more events like this are needed to empower our community and promote a diverse and inclusive environment in the science world.

As the main event in France we were proud to share our experience via Twitter with the others around the world. It was a great experience for all that were involved, and we thank the IUPAC organisers for this great idea!

For more info on the event you can check out our Twitter account @ParisGB2019 . You can also have a look at all the breakfasts that took place all over the world at :

https://iupac.org/100/global-breakfast/

Here is a compilation of the photos and comments of the Portrait-participants

Finally, we would also like to thank our sponsors for this event: the Faculty of Sciences and Engineering, the UFR of Chemistry, the Laboratoires d’Excellence MiChem and MATISSE and TCI Europe for the goodies!

And who says this ends here? This event has sparked in all of the participants (not only at Sorbonne but around the world) a desire to do more to empower our community. We will see how this will take shape in the weeks to come !

The event was also featured on our University’s website : click here!