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"I was fascinated by the world of work but I didn't know where to start. It seemed to me that to change things, you had to fully understand them from the inside. So I went to Dauphine university where I specialised in strategy and human relations. After the Agrégation competitive examination, I joined the University of Western Brittany (UBO) to teach management at the Faculty of Law & Economics. To begin doing research, I did a master's degree in human resources development that adopted a fairly transversal approach involving sociologists, psychologists and managers. To understand how democracy could impact a company's economic performance, for several months I became heavily involved with a worker's textile cooperative: female workers had successfully taken over a knitting business, set up as a cooperative, that they had bought from an autocrat who had persecuted them for years.

In the 2000s, I focused on female entrepreneurs. Their propensity to start business was as strong as that of men, but they did not take action. I conducted a series of interview using the biographical method. The results of this study led to the creation of the Entreprendre au féminin platform, implemented and disseminated throughout France. Public research must respond to a social demand and be useful. In my lab, we have partnered with the exciting "Resilience and leadership" chair. Today, contributing to the emergence of a "blue" manager model is at the heart of my scientific interests. Research must respond to the concerns of companies attempting to reconcile the economy and social and environmental responsibility. As with gender equality, we must seek collective intelligence and ensure that it is a win-win situation for everybody!"

Marie-Noëlle Chalaye,
Director of the Brest University School of Management (IAE), University of Western Brittany

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