Académie des technologies

Technology and Society

At a time of fake news and radical technophobic or technophile postures, the Academy is committed to contributing to the improvement of scientific and technical culture for a better understanding by all audiences of technologies and the issues related to them. It is also committed to contributing to a more inclusive world of technology, starting from the general observation of a lack of attractiveness of technological careers to young women, and the under-representation of female experts in technology-related fields. 

Technology and gender diversity Generation Tech

Technology and gender diversity

The French Academy of Technology shares the general observation that technological careers are not very attractive to young women, and that female experts in technology-related fields are under-represented. It is committed to helping reduce this deficit, which results in a loss of opportunities for many talented women and deprives society of the diversity of their views on these issues.

The “Technology and Gender Diversity” Mission set up in 2019 thus aims to strengthen the contributions and visibility of women in the world of technology. The academy, a pioneer in its field, has adopted a charter for parity that sets out its internal objectives for 2025, and plans in particular to move its own bodies and operating methods towards parity.

Externally, the group led by the Mission is working with academics, industry and associations to analyse the obstacles that lead to the severe under-representation of women in technology training and careers and to identify the levers that will enable progress to be made.

The Academy has also decided to create a network of young women involved in scientific and technological professions.

This “Women in Tech” network aims to be a forum for exchange and sharing:

– demonstrating the presence of women with higher education qualifications in a wide range of technical sectors, including those reputed to be predominantly male,

– providing an opportunity to discover their inspiring career paths and inspire younger women to take up careers in science and technology,

– giving the women in this network the opportunity to get to know each other and share their professional experiences, on their own initiative, and at meetings of the National Academy of Technologies of France to which they are invited to attend and possibly contribute to the work of the academy beyond the sole subject of gender diversity.

See Women in Tech portraits

Generation Tech

In university or in school, young people are fully concerned by technologies, of which they are often the first users, but from which they also expect solutions for a more sustainable and fairer world of tomorrow. 

However, they find it often difficult to get access to technological careers, and their knowledge of technological objects and services is very heterogeneous and often weak. 

The Academy’s objective, through its Youth Mission, is to promote exchanges between the young generations and the National Academy of Technologies of France. To do so, the Academy relies on initiatives led by partners and mediators, facilitating intergenerational exchanges on subjects at the interface between society and technology. It is thus participating in the Engineering Sciences Olympiad. Aware of the importance of the imaginaries associated with technologies, it has launched a science fiction short story competition in 2021 with Usbek & Rica magazine. 

The Academy is also studying, in collaboration with its European counterparts, innovative ways to better involve the younger generations in its work.