Jeanne Guiot

Jeanne Guiot, (24 March 1889 – 11 July 1963) was a French engineer specialising in metallurgy, particularly special steels for the navy and heavy industry. A feminist activist, she was committed to promoting women's access to scientific and civic responsibilities. In 1922, she was the first woman to be admitted to the Société des ingénieurs civils de France. Her name was one of 72 women of science proposed for addition to the Eiffel Tower.^[1]

Jeanne Marie Guiot was born on 24 March 1889 in Caen, Normandy to Marie Adeline Augustine Hetzlen and Gustave Henri Marie Eulalie Louis Joseph Guiot. Her father was a medical doctor^[2] and her paternal grandfather was a lighthouse engineer.^[3]

She studied sciences at the University of Caen in Normandy and was researching her PhD thesis before the outbreak of World War I.^[1] Women's access to higher education in France was still limited in the early 20th century.^[4][5]

At the start of World War I, Guiot enlisted as a volunteer nurse, interrupting her doctoral thesis in science, but fell seriously ill herself.^[6][7] During her convalescence, she undertook some work for an engineer, which opened up an opportunity for her.^[6]

In 1917, Guiot joined the Compagnie des forges et aciéries de la marine et d'Homécourt (the French Navy's steelworks) as an engineer. The organisation supplied locomotives for heavy artillery and special steels for the Navy. She worked on cutting-edge research in energy, thermodynamics and blast furnaces.^[1]

In 1917, she founded a group of agricultural volunteers in Paris, an initiative designed to compensate for the male labourers being called up into the armed forces. The group was made up of around sixty people, who jointly cultivated a 1.5-hectare plot of land in the grounds of Princess Mathilde's château in Saint-Gratien, north-west of Paris, with the harvests donated to feed those in need.^[6][7]

In 1922, she became the first woman to be admitted to the Société des ingénieurs civils de France (French Society of Civil Engineers) after first applying to join in 1917.^[6][8][9]

Jeanne Guiot died in Avignon on 11 July 1963 aged 74.^[2]

In 2026, Guiot was announced as one of 72 historical women in STEM whose names have been proposed to be added to the 72 men already celebrated on the Eiffel Tower. The plan was announced 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.^{[1][10][11][12]}

• History of women in engineering