As students approaching the end of their studies, Selma Gasc(E19) and Isolde Roumy launched the WOW (World of Women) project to highlight women’s professional achievements. Its aim: to inspire and advise young women who are about to enter the workforce. 

ESSEC Alumni: How did the Wow project come about?

Selma Gasc: My associate Isolde Roumy and I were about to enter the workforce, and we had a lot of questions. How do we plan our careers taking into account the specificities of being a woman in the professional world? How do we combine our personal and professional lives? How do we thrive in a traditionally masculine environment? We couldn’t answer these questions on our own, so we decided to reach out to women who have had exceptional career paths. We wanted to learn from them and share their stories with women of our own generation via a website and short videos on social networks.

EA: Why did you choose to target Africa for your first set of meetings?

S. Gasc: Our project is based on an editorial format: each year, a new team travels to a new continent to interview a hundred women. We chose to start with Africa partly due to our personal interest in the region, but above all because we considered it to be the logical choice. Africa is a continent in the making, and this is largely due to women who defy clichés and preconceived ideas. We wanted to spotlight their work.

EA: How did you select the countries you visited?

S. Gasc: We chose 11 countries, each presenting a specific issue related to our project. For example, we explored the consequences of the Arab Spring on women’s freedoms in Egypt, the changes brought about by the election of a woman president in Ethiopia, and the paradoxical consequences that the genocide had in terms of gender equality in Rwanda.

EA: Which female figures did you meet?

S. Gasc: We met women working in sectors as diverse as politics, economics, culture, health, urban planning, education and agriculture. They included Rose Moses, founder of Eco Makaa Solutions, which produces ecological coal briquettes in Kenya; Gaëlle Biteghe, former CEO of Ecobank Gabon, a Pan-African bank; Fatma Guenoune, president of the Senegalese League Against Cancer; and Nigest Haile, founder of ENAT Bank in Ethiopia, the only bank in the world to be operated and run primarily by women.   

EA: What questions did you ask them? 

S. Gasc: Do you have to change your appearance and attitude in order to better integrate into a male environment? Is there a specifically female management or leadership style? What is the best age to have children and how does one integrate them into one’s professional life? Is it possible to achieve a balance? And so forth.

EA: And what answers did you get?

S. Gasc: If there’s one thing that all the women I met agree on, it’s that you have to have a career plan. A ten-year plan, if possible, with milestones and short-term goals. Additional recommendations: don’t censor yourself, don’t feel limited by your training, lose that feeling of guilt that weighs on working women, take the time to share your skills with others, etc. We also received some incongruous advice, including a recommendation from Patricia Zoundi Yao, a serial entrepreneur from Côte d’Ivoire, who told us: ‘Choose your own vocabulary. For example, when someone says no to me, I hear yes!’ 

EA: How is your initiative resonating?

S. Gasc: Every woman we met helped us expand our network and reach an audience we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to reach. Our content is gradually gaining visibility; we are in discussions with local and international media outlets to share our content with the next generation. The ultimate goal is to succeed in reaching young women and share our discoveries with them, whether through conferences, workshops or meetings.  

EA: What type of follow-up is in store?

S. Gasc: The first edition laid the groundwork for the next one: a new team will be visiting a new continent, Asia, in the summer of 2020! Our goal is the same: to meet powerful women, better understand how they forged their careers and draw inspiration from them. In the meantime, we will continue to make the rounds in France, by interviewing powerful women right here. You can follow our site and/or follow us on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn!

Interview by Louis Armengaud Wurmser (E10), Content Manager at ESSEC Alumni

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