International Women’s Rights Day: equality, diversity and health in higher education

“Gender gap between women and men is old, and deeply rooted. It need not only strong, constant, resolute actions, but also deep cultural changes in all aspects of our society”. Based on this observation, the aim of the Toutes et Tous Egaux government plan, launched in 2023, is to strengthen and accelerate government action in all areas, particularly higher education and student life.

Over-masculinised professional sectors

The first area is professional gender equality. Professional gender equality and women’s economic autonomy are “the first conditions for real equality between women and men”. The plan has already set out many measures, which have been taken up by the Ministry, which include efforts made to promote gender diversity in all occupations. In order to “promote the entry of women into the most male-dominated sectors”, the Toutes et tous égaux plan seeks to: 

• promote the role of women in the industrial sector, with a highlight, Industry Week and the Industri'Elles collective, which in 2024 organised more than 1,000 events devoted to the gender mix in professions and raising awareness of industry among young girls;
• bring comprehensive support for 10,000 young women who want to continue higher education in the tech and digital sectors, by “acting on all identified obstacles” To this end, a Tech pour toutes programme (Tech for all) should be launched in 2025;
• create a mentoring platform accessible free of charge to all women and open to all professions, offering them personalised support as part of their professional development.

Ethics and respect in higher education

The second priority is to disseminate a culture of equality, which “involves education in mutual respect”. This means first and foremost becoming aware that “gender stereotypes assign predefined roles and functions to women and men, both in professional and private life”. To help girls and boys “free themselves from these representations, which influence their choices and limit the field of possibilities, it is essential to promote a culture of equality”. While the first of the measures in this “gender equality objective” is to increase gender equality in higher education science courses, other measures concern other aspects of equality:

• ethics, with the mobilisation of higher education institutions to introduce an “ethical charter” in favour of equality in all higher education institutions, particularly in the arts and culture;
• respect, with the fight against sexual and sexist violence in higher education, by creating listening and support centres open to victims and witnesses of sexist and sexual violence in each university. At the same time, an awareness-raising campaign on sexual and sexist violence in universities has been launched, in collaboration with student organisations.

Health at every stage of life 

Promoting women’s health means first and foremost promoting access to rights and, first and foremost, “guaranteeing women the right to control their own bodies”, especially young women. As part of this, free contraception and screening has been extended to all young people up to the age of 26. This measure concerns 3 million young women.

More specifically, the following actions have been set out:

• emergency contraception, which is free and available without a prescription from a pharmacy for minors. For adults, it is available in pharmacies without a prescription and is reimbursed at 100% on presentation of the Vitale card (French health insurance card);
• widespread access to HIV screening, available in all medical laboratories without a prescription, without an appointment, without advance payment and with 100% reimbursement. Screening can also be extended to other STIs, under the same conditions.
• Free male and female condoms up to the age of 26;
• communication campaigns, in particular a national campaign on contraception.