For the past two weeks and until International Women's Day on March 8, several events are taking place on campus to shine a light on women, science and women's health. There have already been several highlights on campus, including the "Pasteurian Women" exhibition. Other events are coming up over the following days and weeks, including documentary screenings and lectures. Make sure you don't miss out!

"Women and Science" month is also an opportunity for the Institut Pasteur to speak about its work and its commitment to supporting female scientists and raising awareness of the role of women in research, a field and an environment all too often seen by women as being closed to them. And it is the perfect time to shine a light on the cutting-edge research conducted at the Institut Pasteur to improve our understanding of women's health, a research field that has been neglected for far too long. The Institut Pasteur held a press conference on Wednesday February 18 with the participation of several female scientists working in this area. 
 
Finally, "Women and Science" month offers a chance to look more closely at the Institut Pasteur's commitments, as reflected in the Professional Gender Equality Index, which charts its progress and helps steer the efforts that still need to be made to achieve full equality in every respect.
 
The newsletter team is pleased to present the milestones, upcoming highlights, online features, profiles and media appearances by several of the Institut Pasteur's female scientists. 

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Media coverage for the Institut Pasteur's women scientists 
 

❖ Press conference on campus on February 18 

Last Wednesday, the Pasteur Institute invited several journalists to attend a press conference followed by laboratory tours to discuss women's health issues with female researchers.

Deliberately organised ahead of 8 March, International Women's Day, this press event revealed the Institut Pasteur's desire to highlight this essential area of scientific research, which deserves greater attention.  Indeed, beyond health issues that specifically affect women, such as endometriosis or menopause, many diseases affect women and men differently. These research topics, which have been little studied in the past, have emerged in recent years and are advancing gender equality.  

Introduced by Mariana Mesel-Lemoine, Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Department at the Institut Pasteur, this press conference shed light on several of the Pasteur Institute's research projects in this field, from fundamental research to therapeutic innovation. Four scientists presented their work and shared their vision of the advances needed to improve women's health:  

• Camille Berthelot, Evolution of menstruation and associated diseases (G5 Comparative Functional Genomics)  
• Clarisse Ganier, Deciphering the effects of sex hormones on human skin immunity according to gender and during pregnancy (Meta-organism Unit)  
• Aurélie Chiche, Postpartum breast cancers: senescence may explain their aggressiveness (Cellular Plasticity in Age-Related Pathologies Unit)  
• Jean-Baptiste Masson, AI and mixed reality for female cancer surgery and maternal-fetal health (Decision and Bayesian Computation Unit) 

These presentations were followed by a tour of the Cellular Plasticity in Age-Related Pathologies Laboratory, led by Han Li.

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These meetings were covered in the press. Here are a few articles:

Radio  

• Podcast l’Info de France Inter : Cancer du sein post-partum : un mécanisme cellulaire essentiel à la réparation du sein peut favoriser les tumeurs
• France Info :Cancer du sein post-partum : un mécanisme cellulaire essentiel peut paradoxalement favoriser les tumeurs 

❖ Pasteurian women in the media

You can already find:

• Brut.: report on female cancers with researcher Han Li and her team. Report broadcast on January 22: BRUT. TOMORROW — They are studying postpartum breast cancer.  

You can already save the dates for several special programs:  

• France Inter – Sarah Bonnet will be a guest on Terre au carré to talk about ticks on March 3.  
• “Priorité santé” on RFI dedicated to research on women's health with three Pasteur researchers in the studio: Aurélie Chiche, Clarisse Ganier, and Bich-Tram Huynh on March 9 at 10 a.m.  
• France 5 – Mag de la santé: portraits of pioneers in the field of health with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Michaela Muller-Trutwin. Broadcast on June 5.  

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Activities on campus
 

Take advantage of the many events and activities on campus throughout this special month.

* Depuis le 9 février et jusqu’au 8 avril : Exposition Femmes pasteuriennes et lecture dans l’atrium François Jacob

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The CeRIS and the Pasteur Museum are pleased to invite you to the Pasteurian Women exhibition, which opened on February 9 and features a selection of archive photographs of women who played a role in the history of the Institut Pasteur. There are also two glass display cases dedicated to the life of Marie Pasteur, a key figure in the founding of the Institut Pasteur who was instrumental in sharing and promoting Louis Pasteur's scientific research.

On 17 February, an inaugural reading was held by the CeRIS and museum teams. Many of you attended this event, which was a time for sharing and storytelling. The organising teams would like to thank you for coming, for listening and for visiting.
 

* March 9: screening of the documentary “Et l'homme créa la secrétaire”

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The network of assistants at the Institut Pasteur is pleased to invite you to a screening of the documentary Et l'homme créa la secrétaire ("And man created the secretary"), which explores the little-known history of what has become an emblematic profession. Through archives and testimonials, the film looks at the feminization of the role of secretary, the stereotypes surrounding it and the quest for recognition of those who hold this central position in the workplace.

The screening will be held on March 9, from 3 to 5pm in the Émile Duclaux lecture hall, and will include a discussion session led jointly by the Assist IP Network, Aurore Degoutin, president of the French Federation of Administrative Professions and Morgane Grand from the Department for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

Click here to join the Assist IP Network
 
* March 17: invitation to the symposium "Women's Health, Women in Health"   

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The Scientific Priority 3 team, "Origins of Diseases," together with the Department for Scientific Programming and Incentive Actions (SPAIS) and the DEI Department, are pleased to invite you to the symposium "Women's Health, Women in Health" on March 17, 2026 at the Institut Pasteur, in connection with equality month and International Women's Day.

The event will include presentations from scientists and physicians from the Institut Pasteur, the Institut Curie, the Institut Cochin, the French Society for Cardiology and the "Women's Cancers" University Hospital Institute.

See the list of confirmed speakers so far: 

Provisional program

The event is free but prior registration is required

Few posters positions are still available!

The session is open to research projets and support services, associations, initiatives... dedicated to women's health and inclusion in science.


Extended deadline submission:  February 26th.

The poster session offers the opportunity to give a common space for sensibilisation, research projects, initiatives and collaboration about gender equity issues.

The symposium is the result of a joint initiative that reflects a shared commitment to advancing research via a cross-disciplinary approach combining research laboratories, medicine and the societal impacts of public health.

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Any questions? 

Please contact Elodie Dandelot by email at elodie.dandelot@pasteur.fr


Organizing team
Cécile Apert, Sylvie Gratepanche, Han Li, Lucie Peduto, Mallory Perrin-Wolff and Cécile Vacher

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Activities on the Insitut Pasteur website and social media
 

As announced in the latest editions of the BIP, The Institut Pasteur website, pasteur.fr, and social media pages will be used to promote the initiative in February and March, in support of science, women and health.

Program: 

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  Every week from February 11, in an online echo of the exhibition now on display in the atrium of the François Jacob building, the CeRIS will be publishing profiles of women at the Institut Pasteur, presenting their careers and scientific achievements based on Sandra Legout's historical research.
   

  Discover the first two portraits : Berthe Kolochine-Erber (1890-1968), specialist in leptospirosis et Suzanne Duvolon (1916-2016), specialist in yellow fever.
   

  Starting on March 5, the CeRIS will also be publishing its "CeRIS favorites" videos. The CeRIS team is busy preparing further initiatives – keep an eye on the newsletter during "Women and Science" month to find out more!

• Once a week over the course of the month, vote on the Pasteur Museum's Instagram account for your choice of profiles about the women who have shaped the Institut Pasteur. Through their scientific research and their work, they made the Institut Pasteur what it is today.

• Discover and participate in the #MaScienceDemain participatory challenge on Instagram, Threads, Facebook, TikTok.

A series of videos is also being broadcast as another way of showcasing women and girls in science during this gender month.

Check out the first video with Molly Ingersoll speaking about differences in immunity between men and women.

Keep your eyes peeled for other videos to come on the Institut Pasteur's YouTube channel:

• February 27: Clarisse Ganier will talk to us about her project on the skin microbiota and hidradenitis suppurativa 

• March 8: Aurélie Chiche will discuss women's cancers
   

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Key figures

Publication of the Professional Gender Equality Index

The Institut Pasteur has published its Professional Gender Equality Index for 2025,* obtaining a score of 99% for the third year in a row.

This excellent result confirms our strong commitment to equality in the workplace, while also pushing us to remain committed and pursue our efforts so that we keep making progress and improving representation for women at every level of our institution.

Representation on governing bodies at the Institut Pasteur is 40.7% for women and 59.3% for men (taking into account all members of the Executive Board (COMESP) and Senior Management Board (CODIR) as a whole).

Key figures on gender equality at the Institut Pasteur

To see more key figures on gender equality at the Institut Pasteur, go to the dedicated ePasteur page.  

To find out more see the page on the Professional Gender Equality Index

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* All companies with at least 50 employees are obliged to calculate and publish their Professional Gender Equality Index each year by March 1 at the latest.

They must also communicate their results and the way in which this information is published to the Social and Economic Committee and the French Labor Administration. (Find out more about the Professional Gender Equality Index)