As a company with more than 20,000 employees representing 140 nationalities on 131 sites worldwide, Dassault Systèmes is committed to maintaining a diverse workforce and inclusive environment in which truly disruptive innovations can be imagined and delivered.
To strengthen our commitment to gender diversity, Dassault Systèmes is focused on sharing human-centric, inspirational stories of people from the 3DS community. A prime example of that is the new WIN Conversation series launched by the Women’s Initiative Network here at 3DS.
WIN Conversations invites talented women from 3DS to talk openly and informally about their beliefs, career experiences and their visions on gender diversity. The series launched around International Women’s Day 2021. Thus far, they have published two stories, which we’ll feature here, and have plans to release more throughout the year.
“We can find women in any function … at any level of hierarchy of the company”
Valérie Raoul-Desprez, EVP of Group Finance, has 33 years of experience in finance and heads up 800 people. But even she has had to overcome a glass ceiling in her career. She says having sponsors can help you grow and develop in a natural way. And what advice can she offer to young women looking to grow in their careers?
“I think that they just have to take the challenges, accept them, even if they’re not feeling ready for it,” she says. “If the success is not there or the promotions are not coming along, they should just ask why. Nobody is going to blame you for asking for reasons. There may be some very good reasons to not get the job, but never forget to ask the right questions.”
And Raoul-Desprez keeps fighting to improve diversity on her team here at 3DS, where 45% of managers are women but she’s working toward raising that number to 50%.
“I think that in terms of diversity, and not only gender, the company does an incredible job,” she says. “The values of Dassault Systèmes around passion, innovation and challenging the status quo – and there is no discrimination and it is very difficult to make that statement.”
Patrick Ball Patrick is a Senior Communications Manager on the Corporate Publishing team here at Dassault Systèmes. An experienced journalist, marketer, speechwriter and storyteller, Patrick's words have appeared on pages and stages around the world.