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“Having children at the beginning of my career in the
radar sector forced me to interrupt the projects I was working
on. Both times I returned to work I was asked to move to a different
project and team. Consequently, I developed the ability to adapt
to new responsibilities and become efficient fairly quickly.
In the past, I have alternated between team management positions
and coordination functions. To succeed professionally, a woman
with children must be well supported by society, her company
and her family. As a professor of medicine, my mother stimulated
my scientific curiosity. In jobs like mine, we have the good
fortune to experience something new every day. We get to create
and contribute to true innovation, and it is fascinating. As
a woman, I demand the utmost professionalism of myself; to be
faultless. Currently I am the only female Director at the European
Space Agency.
I
am in charge of the telecommunications satellites division. My position
is quite enriching in terms of the intercultural exchanges it
offers. Putting together people who have different ways of looking
at the same problem is an extremely powerful and amazingly efficient
way of maximising speed and creativity. Organizing synergies
between competencies is key, and part of that is adding a female
dimension.
The day we succeed in doing this systematically is the day we
will really benefit from the full force of Europe. Satellites
are used to develop scientific knowledge, to explore the Universe,
to observe the Earth. In my field, satellites complement other
terrestrial infrastructures to provide telecommunications, access
to the Internet and broadcast TV. Nothing is more exciting than
the launch of a new satellite; it is an extremely intense moment
that prompts an unforgettable emotion.” |
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