Isabelle Bailly, President of SNECI, participated in the MEDEF’s 5-year commitment to gender equality
On January 30th, the MEDEF women’s network celebrated its 5th anniversary in the presence of Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, President of the Mouvement des Entreprises de France, and Marlène Schiappa, Secretary of State for the Social and Solidarity Economy and Associative Life, Elisabeth Grenin, President of the Medef Bourgogne Franche Comté and President of DANIEL GRENIN, Laurent Giovachini, President of Syntec and CEO of Sopra Steria, Marie Christine Oghly: President of Femmes Chefs d’Entreprise Monde, Patrick Martin, Deputy President of Medef, Alexandre Saubot, President of France Industrie and many others. At this MEDEF initiative, gender equality was at stake.
It was the occasion to look back at 5 years of commitment and exemplarity of the Medef, to assess the actions undertaken in favor of the representation of women executives in the Medef’s mandates, the promotion of entrepreneurship and the feminization of the professions and the corporate bodies.
During this evening, Isabelle Bailly, President of SNECI, was present and the following observations appeared:
- There are not enough women in the industry, although this represents a real opportunity to progress
- Women bring diversity of thought to the relationship at management level
- Thanks to quotas, men have naturally realized the value of women
- Women must dare and gain confidence by participating in round tables and events
- Careers are built between the ages of 30 and 40 when children need attention
- Handling two lives: family and professional is still part of women’s daily activities
As concluded by Dominique Carlac’h, Vice-President and spokesperson of the Mouvement des Entreprises, the MEDEF is committed to diversity by accompanying the movement of feminization of the different bodies & companies and with concrete results such as the successful parity at the level of the MEDEF 40.
Isabelle Bailly, president of SNECI for more than 30 years, has always lived in a male-dominated world, and this has been the case since her childhood, when in the 4th grade she was already in a boarding school that was open to gender diversity: 4 girls for 300 boys.
“From high school onwards, young girls must realize that they must go into industry. It’s not a question of the length of their studies, as there are many girls in medicine, but of believing that it’s possible and giving them a taste, by example, for jobs that are thought to be reserved for men.
I was not too interested in school, because it was rigid and not very agile. I went from class to class daydreaming as soon as an opportunity arose. I was the average student considered as “passive”. Situations of regularity and continuity are extremely boring for me: that was already the case!
I applied the school’s motto “well armed for life” to the letter. I became top of the class. I was interested in everything! It was in this school that I learned to have a taste for work well done, to live naturally with diversity and diversity, to build myself up!
My passion for experiencing the unexpected, new or even complicated situations was finally satisfied and this will be a determining factor for the future,” explained Isabelle Bailly.
At the age of 30, after starting a career in strategic positions (product manager at Bendix, now Hitachi, then head of marketing & advertising and director of foreign subsidiaries), Isabelle joined SNECI: a new life begins!
Her peers have taught her everything, such as “loving your customer”, “going into battle” and “conquering markets”, “and the importance of figures”, which has enabled SNECI to grow steadily over the past 70 years.
Isabelle was raised as a boy and has always been very comfortable in a masculine world, even if in her thirties it was sometimes complicated to be a young woman in sales by nature and a manager in an environment of older male engineers who wondered where her legitimacy lay.
Isabelle has always risen to the occasion and demonstrated that it is possible to change the mindset by setting an example and that a woman definitely has a place in a male-dominated world, especially the automotive industry.
Diversity and the feminization of jobs in the industry is a point that is close to Isabelle’s heart. In fact, one third of SNECI’s employees are women and Isabelle does not hesitate to push her female employees to the forefront.
Such as, Sara El Ghali, SNECI MEA Manager, who spoke on January 17th at an Automotive Round Table on “Information Security Management in the Automotive Sector” organized by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Morocco in cooperation with Invest for Jobs – Special Initiative “Decent Employment for a Just Transition” of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented by the GIZ Morocco.
Women have an important place at SNECI, and we consider essential to
- Ensure equal treatment between women and men
- Promote a work/life balance
- Encourage access to management positions for women
- Mobilize to change the image of the industry among young people and women
If you too, as a woman, would like to join a family-owned, international company where women have their place, join SNECI and the many professional opportunities we offer in France and abroad or send your CV to talents@sneci.com.
