Openness and diversity feature prominently among the strategic actions of ENS de Lyon’s institutional project. A new master plan for professional equality between women and men has been adopted for 2024-2026, with a number of key actions that reinforce the policy of equality and prevention of gender-based and sexual violence for both students and staff. Particular attention is being paid to girls’ and women’s access to scientific fields and careers, as well as to the working conditions of female PhD students and young researchers.
The 2024-2026 professional equality action plan comprises 114 actions divided into seven areas:
- Governance, management, and monitoring of professional equality policy.
- Assessment, prevention, and treatment of pay gaps between women and men.
- Guaranteeing equal access to professions and professional responsibilities.
- Balancing private and professional life and supporting parenthood.
- Quality of life at work, working conditions, and occupational health from a gender perspective.
- Equality issues in student quality of life.
- Prevention and handling of reports of discrimination, psychological harassment, gender-based and sexual violence, and LGBT+phobia.
More info
Cécile DeWitt-Morette scholarships
At the start of the 2025 academic year, ENS de Lyon launched the Cécile DeWitt-Morette program, which provides funding for four years of study for female students admitted on the basis of their academic record and enrolled in the ENS de Lyon degree program in the Mathematics and Computer Science departments. The scholarship is worth ¤12,000 per year.
Cécile DeWitt-Morette (1922-2017)
French physicist and mathematician. After working in the laboratory headed by Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot, she joined the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton in 1948. While spending the rest of her career in the United States, she played a decisive role in rebuilding physics research and science education in France after World War II. In 1951, she founded the École de Physique des Houches , a summer school that welcomed many future Nobel Prize winners, and remained its director until 1972. ENS de Lyon is one of the co-supervisors of the École des Houches. Cécile DeWitt-Morette’s commitment led her daughters to agree to name the ENS de Lyon scholarship program after her. She is one of 72 women scientists whose names will be engraved on the Eiffel Tower following an initiative by the association Femmes & Sciences.
Why?
Since the latest French high school reform, the number of girls studying science has fallen sharply. This represents a decline of nearly 60 years in girls’ engagement in science. According to statistics from the French Ministry of Education, girls perform better than boys in the Baccalaureate. Among them, while nearly half have taken a science-based Baccalaureate, only 19% have chosen Mathematics as an option, and this figure falls even further for Computer Science, at only 4%. In the professional and research world, for example at the CNRS, women represent less than 20% of staff dedicated to research in disciplines such as Mathematics and Computer Science. At ENS de Lyon, female students in these fields represent less than 10% of the student body, and this underrepresentation has worsened in recent years.
The aim is therefore to encourage young women to apply on the basis of their academic record, with the guarantee that, if admitted, their tuition fees at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon will be covered. The admission criteria for all candidates are academic level and the relevance of their individual project. This special incentive for female candidates removes the financial barrier to undertaking long-term studies and recognizes the place that women should occupy in these fields.
Encouraging initial results
At the start of the 2025 academic year, eight female students joined the School in Mathematics and Computer Science and benefited from this programme. At the same time, the number of candidates admitted through competitive examinations also increased, which is an encouraging sign of greater gender diversity. Today, the proportion of women in the two programs is nearly 30%, bringing us close to gender parity. This incentive is coupled with a strong awareness campaign among students and faculty, as well as efforts to prevent sexual violence and all forms of gender discrimination, so that female students feel validated and legitimate in their chosen fields of study.
The Female PhD candidate Mentoring Program, in partnership with the Femmes et Sciences association
ENS de Lyon is the pilot institution for launching the Rhône-Alpes version of the national mentoring program created by the Femmes & Sciences association. The aim is to offer individual support to female PhD students, enabling them to build a professional and career plan with trusted and experienced individuals. This support does not focus on their thesis topics, but rather on sharing experiences and training to enable doctoral students to integrate into the research community with greater self-confidence and motivation. The mentors are mainly women, but the role is also open to men.
Launched in October 2025, the program brings together 11 pairs of mentees and mentors. The pairs were formed in December. In January 2026, the various members of the pairs met and signed the mentoring charter. They came together for their first day of work on February 3 for a workshop on the Karpman triangle, followed by testimonials from female researchers. Between now and the end of the academic year, other workshops will address topics such as self-confidence, imposter syndrome, work-life balance, and postdoctoral studies abroad.
A 10-year partnership with Science, a Women’s Job Day
Showing by example that all scientific professions are mixed, deciphering stereotypes, and overcoming preconceived notions: this is the ambition of Science, a Women’s Job Day, which has been organized every year since 2017.
While girls perform better at school than boys, as several studies show, too few of them go on to study science and technology at university, particularly in engineering and digital fields. To combat these stereotypes and help young girls pursue scientific careers without holding back, the Femmes & Sciences association, the ASLAN labex, the ICAR laboratory, and the Lyon Astrophysics Research Center (CRAL) are organizing, with the active support of ENS de Lyon, a day specifically for high school girls to meet women working in public and private scientific and technological fields.
Every year, ENS de Lyon is proud to welcome some 500 high school girls from the region and their mentors, who come from all scientific professions, including researchers, engineers, and technicians, to encourage them to follow their curiosity and let them know that this choice is open to them, just like the honorary mentors of this event, two Nobel Prize-winning women, Françoise Barré Sinoussi and Anne L’Huillier.
Symbolically, this day takes place around March 8, International Women’s Rights Day.
