You oversee the Hello Women program. What changes have you seen since 2020?
Vincent Lecerf : The biggest change is awareness. When we launched Hello Women in 2020, gender balance in tech was still often seen as a side topic, something linked mainly to corporate social responsibility. That’s no longer the case. Today it’s widely recognized as a real business and societal issue.
We’ve made progress, but we still have work to do.
V.L. : More women are entering tech careers. Companies are putting real programs in place. The numbers are moving in the right direction. But the pace is still too slow. Across the G20, only 22% of people working in STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – are women (UNESCO, 2024). At Orange, 25.4% of tech and digital roles are held by women. This illustrates the scale of the challenge still ahead if we want to build a more inclusive sector.
Technology shapes our daily lives: our communications, our health, our mobility, our access to knowledge, and even our security. If these technologies are not designed by everyone, they will only reflect part of our world. For me, gender balance is not only about workplace equality. It also affects competitiveness, creativity, and our collective ability to innovate in an environment that is evolving very quickly. Major technological shifts such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and cloud computing require many different perspectives. Bringing more diversity into the digital sector is essential if we want to build technologies that are stronger, safer, and more useful for everyone.
Recent studies confirm that gender diversity is a real driver of performance for companies. The European Commission estimates that increasing the share of women in information and communication technology roles to 45% could generate up to €260 billion in additional GDP for Europe.
This issue goes far beyond individual companies. It is economic, societal, and strategic.
How can we ensure that tomorrow’s technologies don’t reproduce today’s inequalities?
V.L. : Technology must be designed for everyone. If innovation is meant to empower people rather than exclude them, diversity must be part of the design process from the start. Bias does not disappear on its own. It must be addressed through education, training, and company culture. But no one can do this alone. Real change happens when public institutions, associations, and companies work together. At Orange, we start early.
Through the Hello Women program, we work with middle schools and high schools, and with university students. We organize meetings with women working in tech. We support associations that help broaden career choices. The goal is simple. Spark interest. Show young women these careers are accessible. And above all show how exciting they can be.
Orange launched Hello Women in 2020. Six years later, what results have you seen?
V.L. : Hello Women started from a simple belief that our transformation cannot happen without women. Six years later, the program has clearly helped move things forward.
More than 400 women role models at Orange regularly meet with young girls to share their experiences and show how tech careers are open to everyone. We have recruited more than 6,000 women into tech roles and supported more than 1,000 women through career transitions. We are proud of the progress we have made. Since the launch of the program, the share of women in technical and digital roles at Orange has increased by five points, rising from 20.5% to 25.4% by the end of 2025. It is an important milestone.
But it is only one step.
How do you support women moving into technical careers?
V.L. : We strongly believe people can move into new careers. That’s why we offer training, mentoring, and career transition programs. These initiatives help overcome stereotypes linked to traditional engineering career paths, where women are still underrepresented.
They are also a practical way to bring more diverse talent into technical roles. We also focus on the working environment itself. Remote work. Flexible hours. Support for different stages of parenthood. Initiatives that address sexism in the workplace. Professional fulfilment also depends on finding the right balance between work and personal life.
We are also working on internal culture. Inclusive leadership. Raising awareness across the organization. Because gender balance cannot depend only on the women who want to move forward.
Men also have an essential role to play. As allies. By supporting their colleagues. By challenging bias and sexist behavior. Diversity does not happen simply because targets are set. It is built every day. In teams. In hiring decisions. In promotions. In the way people listen to one another. Real change happens when people work together with high standards and mutual respect.
Why is women’s entrepreneurship now part of the Hello Women program?
V.L. : Because entrepreneurship is a powerful path to independence. In 2025, only 10% of start-ups were founded by all-female teams, and they captured just 2% of the funding raised in Europe. Supporting women founders in tech means supporting innovation at its source. It also means giving visibility to the women who take the leap and build their own companies.
Our goal is to support women at every stage of their journey in tech and digital. From school. To employment. And now to entrepreneurship.
What are your ambitions for 2026-2030?
V.L. : We want to scale up and move faster. That means strengthening training, recruitment, career transitions, and support for women. It means continuing to expand our programs and partnerships so we can reach as many girls and women as possible around the world. And above all, it means making gender balance, and diversity more broadly, part of how we succeed as a company.
