Femmes et Sciences

Femmes et Sciences is a French organisation which encourages young people, especially girls, to engage in scientific and technical training. It promotes women engaged in scientific careers and improves the visibility of women scientists. In 2014, the association received the APEC (Association pour l'emploi des cadres) (Association for the employment of executives) Gold Trophy given to associations and public bodies.^[1]

One of the organisation's publications inspired the idea of adding women's names to the Eiffel Tower and the organisation chose the 72 women's names that are proposed to join the 72 men's names which have always been on the tower.

At the end of the 20th century, women scientists and sociologists in France became alarmed by the lack of women in scientific studies, despite their excellent performance in science baccalaureate exams. The work of Huguette Delavault addressed this subject in depth.^[2]

In April 1998, the European Commission organised "Women and Science" days, sponsored by the French Prime Minister Édith Cresson, to address representative disparities in science.^[3]

In 2000, an interministerial convention to transform gender relations in France emerged in the field of education with several tools including the Women and Science days.^[4]

The Femmes et Sciences association was created at the end of 2000 by Françoise Cyrot-Lackmann, mathematician Huguette Delavault, Françoise Gaspard, physicist Claudine Hermann, engineer Colette Kreder and the Femmes et Mathématiques association. Anthropologist Françoise Héritier, then a professor at the Collège de France became an honorary member. Françoise Cyrot-Lackmann became the head of a French government office, Mission for Parity in Science and Technology, when it was created in September 2001. She said that 45% of biologists were women but only 15% of physicists were women.^[5]

Françoise Cyrot-Lackmann and Claudine Hermann have written about the gender gap in science.^[6]

Femmes et Sciences produces educational documents including "40 femmes scientifiques remarquables du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours" ("40 remarkable women scientists from the 18th century to our days").^[7] This was intended to inspire students and it did inspire Benjamin Rigaud, a student who also worked as an Eiffel Tower tour guide in 2021.^[8]

Rigaud would point out to visitors the 72 names engraved on the tower, but he was surprised to find that there were no women included. He noticed that there were 40 spaces on the tower's second floor and this matched the number of women identified in the Femmes et Sciences's document. This led to the idea of a project, named after the mathematician Hypatia, to include the missing women. The idea was taken up by Nathalie Drach-Temam, the President of Sorbonne University, as Riguad chaired a Sorbonne group who were tasked with creating new ideas.^[8]

Who should be included? It was decided that only those who had an association with France should be considered. Rigaud was keen to see scientists who had lived and worked in France included, such as Japanese physicist Toshiko Yuasa, Senegalese-born computer scientist Rose Dieng-Kuntz, and Tunisian-born engineer Radhia Cousot.^[8]

During the partial solar eclipse of October 25, 2022, Femmes et Sciences partnered with the event "Eclipses: Women Scientists or the Hidden Face of History," organised at the Paris Observatory to launch the Hypatia Project for the Eiffel Tower.^[9] This project proposed to complete the list of great scientists on the first floor of the monument by adding the names of 40 women scientists to the second floor.^[8]

The plan later evolved to include the names of 72 women in science and was announced in January 2026 by the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo following the recommendations of a committee led by Isabelle Vauglin of Femmes et Sciences and Jean-François Martins, representing the operating company which runs the Eiffel Tower.^[10][11]

Benjamin Rigaud is a member of Femmes et Sciences.^[12]

The association participates in various regional, national and European committees to increase the visibility of women scientists, both in the public and private sectors. Claudine Hermann was a member of the jury for the Irène-Joliot-Curie prize created in 2004.^[13]

• Claudine Hermann, physicist, 2000 - 2004 (first president)^[14]
• Colette Guillopé, mathematician, 2004 - 2008
• Florence Durret, astrophysicist, 2008 - 2010
• Véronique Ezratty, graduate of Centrale and Doctor of Science, 2010 - 2013
• Nathalie Van de Wiele, physics teacher, 2013 - 2014
• Sylvaine Turck-Chièze, astrophysicist, 2014 - 2018
• Nadine Halberstadt, physicist, 2018 - 2021
• Isabelle Pianet, physicist, 2021 - 2022^[10]
• Isabelle Vauglin, astrophysicist, 2022 - 2024
• Françoise Conan, university professor, 2024 - ^[15]

• Official website (in French)
• YouTube announcing the Hypatia Project and the original 40 names (in French)