As a company with more than 20,000 employees representing 140 nationalities on 131 sites worldwide, Dassault Systèmes is committed to maintaining a diverse workforce and inclusive environment in which truly disruptive innovations can be imagined and delivered.
To strengthen our commitment to gender diversity, Dassault Systèmes is focused on sharing human-centric, inspirational stories of people from the 3DS community. A prime example of that is the new WIN Conversation series launched by the Women’s Initiative Network here at 3DS.
WIN Conversations invites talented women from 3DS to talk openly and informally about their beliefs, career experiences and their visions on gender diversity. The series launched around International Women’s Day 2021. Thus far, they have published two stories, which we’ll feature here, and have plans to release more throughout the year.
“We can find women in any function … at any level of hierarchy of the company”
“I think that gender diversity is really part of the Dassault Systèmes DNA,” VP of Customer Solution Experience Pascale Montrocher says in her WIN Conversation. “We can find women in any function of the company, at any level of hierarchy of the company. But of course we have to continue to communicate about this topic.”
An engineer and self-described “punk,” Montrocher said qualities of the women who inspire her include pushing boundaries and putting human qualities first. Inclusion, she says, means respect, fairness and synergy. But there is work to be done to get more women into technical fields.
“The issue we have to solve is that women and so young girls in their studies mainly choose biology, medicine, or ecology in order to have a global impact in their day-to-day work,” she said. “We need to convince them that they can have also an impact choosing the virtual world and joining a tech company.”
“Take the challenge, even if you don’t feel ready for it”
Valérie Raoul-Desprez, EVP of Group Finance, has 33 years of experience in finance and heads up 800 people. But even she has had to overcome a glass ceiling in her career. She says having sponsors can help you grow and develop in a natural way. And what advice can she offer to young women looking to grow in their careers?
“I think that they just have to take the challenges, accept them, even if they’re not feeling ready for it,” she says. “If the success is not there or the promotions are not coming along, they should just ask why. Nobody is going to blame you for asking for reasons. There may be some very good reasons to not get the job, but never forget to ask the right questions.”
And Raoul-Desprez keeps fighting to improve diversity on her team here at 3DS, where 45% of managers are women but she’s working toward raising that number to 50%.
“I think that in terms of diversity, and not only gender, the company does an incredible job,” she says. “The values of Dassault Systèmes around passion, innovation and challenging the status quo – and there is no discrimination and it is very difficult to make that statement.”
