What actions or commitments are you putting in place to promote women’s rights?

In order to change certain paradigms, it is important that women adopt the right behavior and position themselves as an equal to men. This can take a lot of courage depending on the context and the person’s environment. I support any woman who feels the need. Knowledge, solidarity and mutual help can lift mountains.

What role model has positively impacted your life and what is the lesson he/she has taught you?

I’ve been lucky to have a lot of independent female role models around me, and that includes my colleagues at Gekko 🙂 More deeply, there are also those women who changed the history of our country while they had no rights and no legitimacy. Those who replaced men in the factories and fields during the war and in conditions 100 times more difficult than in normal times. Those who were part of the resistance, who took up arms or braved the requisitions to feed the population. Or those who hid behind men’s names to paint, publish books, or legitimize major scientific discoveries. Before them, women were considered incapable of doing these things in France. Examples like that are numerous and in all fields.

What typically female anecdote would you like to share with the whole Gekko family?

In fact, any evolution in a society takes its origin close to us, within our private, family or professional circles. In West Africa, where I spent part of my childhood, women and men are equal before the law. In practice, especially in the villages, it is often the woman who is the pillar of the family, who organizes family life, who finances it and who is responsible for the children. However, the woman does not participate in the village council and does not make any official decisions; the man holds the role of official head of the family. Since they cannot vote on certain important decisions that impact their daily lives, women influence them by various means (sex strikes, meal strikes, etc.) and it works! In conclusion, even if women are not recognized or valued in the same way as men, women have influence because they constitute half of humanity. They have the power to change things on their own scale by sharing, staying united and showing solidarity.