Women in Science: A Student-Led Exhibit at the Lycée

MARCH is Women's History Month, and the international community marks MARCH 8 as International Women's Day — a moment to celebrate the contributions of women across every field, and to reflect on the work still ahead. At the Lycée, our Grade 11 students on the Ortega campus turned that reflection into action.

An Exhibit Born from Two Voices

Parcours de femmes scientifiques — Pathways of Women in Science — is an exhibit currently on display at the Ortega campus, bringing together two complementary bodies of work. The first is a collection of 23 posters on loan from AFNEUS, the French national federation of science student associations, through their Femmes en Sciences initiative. Curated by Rébecca Roux, a member of AFNEUS's Femmes en Sciences pole, the panels form the exhibit Femmes scientifiques d'hier et d'aujourd'hui — Women Scientists of Yesterday and Today — celebrating the scientists, researchers, and trailblazers who have shaped the history of science, and those who are shaping it now.

The second voice is entirely our own. Under the guidance of Chantal Tassius, Physics and Chemistry teacher, small groups of Grade 11 science students researched and created eight original posters of their own — each one profiling a scientific career and mapping out the educational pathways and choices needed to pursue it. Together, the two sets of panels create something greater than either alone: a conversation between history and possibility, between the women who came before and the paths open to the students standing in front of these posters today.

Why It Matters

Women remain underrepresented in scientific careers — and that gap begins long before university, shaped by assumptions, role models, and the quiet messages young people absorb about who science is for. This exhibit pushes back against that narrative directly and visibly. By placing the stories of women scientists — past and present — alongside concrete information about how to pursue a scientific career, it speaks to students at exactly the right moment: when choices about orientation and future studies are just beginning to take shape.

That our own students didn't just view the exhibit but contributed to it makes it all the more meaningful. Researching careers, identifying role models, and presenting that work to their peers is itself an act of advocacy — a way of saying that scientific ambition is for everyone in this community.

Learn More

The Femmes en Sciences initiative and AFNEUS are working to promote the place of women and girls in science across France and beyond. You can learn more about their work at the links below:

• Femmes en Sciences: femmes-en-sciences.fr
• AFNEUS: fage.org