Parity, Diversity, Equity

The ParDE (Parity, Diversity, Equity) Mission of the IMB was formed in September 2018 (operating under the name “Parity Mission” until 2024). It aims to observe and identify situations in the life of the laboratory where parity might not be considered, and to raise awareness and communicate on this issue at different levels. Its scope of activity concerns diversity and equity in the broad sense: gender, social, racial, etc.

Annabelle Collin was the first Parity officer at the IMB from 2018 to the end of 2020. Christèle Etchegaray served as Parity officer from 2021 to the end of 2024 and as the Equality referent for the CNRS from 2022 to the end of 2024. Since late 2024, the ParDE mission board has been composed of:

Elena Berardini (IMB and CNRS referent)
Afaf Bouharguane (CNRS referent)
Vincent Bruneau (UFMI referent)
Karim Kellay
Jasmin Raissy
Dajano Tossici (MargauX referent)
Lisl Weynans

The Parity Mission is here to listen to you. For any questions or requests for information, you can contact the ParDE mission board (bureau_parde@listes.math.u-bordeaux.fr).

On the health and safety page, you will find contacts for the relevant services at the University of Bordeaux and the CNRS regarding issues of harassment, violence, or discrimination.

Bordeaux Institute of Mathematics

Presentation

Presentation of the ParDE mission during the 2025 orientation day.
Presentation of the parity mission during the 2022 orientation day.
Presentation for the 2020 HCERES evaluation.

Actions

2025
- Lecture: “Sociological look at the experience of female students within the Mathematics Bachelor’s degree” by Julie Lesthelle. Julie completed her M2 internship in sociology under the co-direction of Sophie Duchesne (sociology) and Christèle Etchegaray and Nicolas Papadakis (IMB). She presented her results on November 3 in the IMB conference room. Video of the talk. Q&A Session. Julie Lesthelle’s thesis is available on HAL. The slides from her M1 and M2 presentations are available here.
- Update of bias awareness documents for IMB selection committees. Organizational advice for selection committees.
2024
- Two VSS (Sexual and Gender-Based Violence) training sessions in 2024 with the organization VSS-Formations.
2023
- Yamina Meziani, officer for parity, equality, and diversity at UB, gave two awareness lectures on “Sexual and Gender-Based Violence & Discrimination”. One session was for laboratory members, and the other for Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral students in Mathematics.
2022
- Following the ministerial action to fight period poverty, the IMB now provides period products.
- Parity Day 2022 took place on 05/07/2022 at Jussieu. The program, presentations, and a podcast episode on the subject can be found on the Opération Postes website.
- From Friday 25/03 to Friday 08/04, the IMB hosted the exhibition “Des Elles pour le Numérique”. It is the result of a collaboration between Bordeaux Métropole, the University of Bordeaux, and the Croc en Jambe workshop, a collective of comic book authors based in Bordeaux. The booklet associated with the exhibition is available by clicking on the title.
- The Moi Informaticienne - Moi Mathématicienne program took place from 19/04 to 22/04!
- Distribution and Academic Parity Index (IPA) for scientific personnel as of January 1, 2022. The IPA is defined as the percentage of women in the considered category.
2021
- Implementation of the Parity and Equal Opportunity referent role within selection committees for recruitment:
  - Presentation for awareness of unconscious bias during recruitment competitions.
  - Drafting of a Parity and Equal Opportunity Charter during recruitment.
- Launch of the mentoring program, available to everyone within the IMB.
- Launch of the parity committee of the MARGAUx federation, in which the IMB is represented.
- M2 internship in social psychology by Élisa Robin: a study on the impact of stereotypes on the experiences and orientation of male and female students in the Mathematics Bachelor’s degree. Work supervised by Alice Follenfant (social psychology) as well as Chantal Ménini and Lisl Weynans at the IMB. This study was conducted with the financial support of the French State, managed by the National Research Agency (ANR) under the IdEx Bordeaux - SysNum “Investment for the Future” program (ANR-10-IDEX-03-02).
  - Thesis (available upon request).
  - Presentation of the work: slides and video.
  - Fact sheets on parity in mathematics: for those wishing to conduct outreach interventions and for teaching staff.

University of Bordeaux

Presentation

The university is committed to and working for equality and diversity.

Their master plan highlights (and quantifies!) gender inequalities. “Whether one belongs to the student world or the professional world, and regardless of the position held, every member of the University sees their fate partly shaped by being a man or a woman… But the university institution can consolidate and reproduce these inequalities between women and men through its functioning, particularly in teaching and research.” (Marion Paoletti, in the conclusion of the situational analysis).

The RESET project, standing for “Redesigning Equality and Scientific Excellence Together,” aims to remove barriers impacting women’s careers in research and academia. Faces of the Campus highlights the collective dimension of scientific excellence through portraits of women working in research support roles.
To discover all their actions, visit their website! In particular, their professional equality action plan and their gender equality action plan describe UB’s strategy and the planning of their actions.
Contact: Yamina Meziani is currently the officer for parity, equality, and diversity.

Conference

Presentation by Isabelle Collet, Professor at the University of Geneva: Presentation slides “Pratiques égalitaires dans la tech… vers plus de mixité” (Egalitarian practices in tech… towards more diversity), LaBRI, 09/22/2021.

Awareness Documents

The awareness exhibition booklet from the University of Bordeaux.
A practical guide to inform and defend against all types of harassment, provided by the Clasches association.
Comic Book Les décodeuses du numérique, online version or downloadable.
Podcasts. For those who prefer listening over reading, here are some ideas:
- Laurène Guidet’s “Parcours Mathématiques” podcast: Parity Day 2022.
- “La boss des maths” podcast on gender inequalities in secondary scientific subjects: La Boss des Maths.
- A podcast on women in science: four women of science.
- A podcast on the place of women in computer science: des ordis des souris et des hommes.

National Resources

Femmes & Maths is an association founded in 1987 that aims to encourage girls to pursue mathematical and, more generally, scientific and technical studies. Their site is full of information. In particular, to learn about what explains the differences in choices after graduation between girls and boys, their situational analysis is an excellent starting point. The association also organizes meetings with its many partners, symposiums, develops political interventions, organizes the Forum for Young Female Mathematicians, and their resources tab is more than comprehensive. This association is a reference, and it would be too long to list all their activities here; their site is well worth a look!
Femmes & Sciences. Another association whose logo speaks for itself: “Promoting sciences and techniques to women, promoting women in sciences and techniques”.
National Institute of Mathematical Sciences and their Interactions (INSMI). For data relating to staff numbers and recruitment competitions, the CNRS parity site centralizes a lot of information.
Parity Commission of IRISA and Inria RBA. The Gender Equality site also brings together useful resources and inspiring initiatives. Highlights include their resources for schools/teachers, their awareness training, and their summary of grants and prizes for young researchers.
Inria: national site of the Parity-Equality Committee.