Léa Griton

As an astrophysicist at Sorbonne University, Léa Griton studies plasmas and planets, yet also questions what still deters women from science. As a committed lecturer and researcher, she tracks down gender stereotypes, from early childhood right through to university, and argues that gender equality cannot be treated as a side issue, but as a prerequisite for knowledge and learning.

Léa Griton’s love of science dates back to her childhood. Her mother, a feminist, nurtured her curiosity with books, exhibitions and stories about women scientists. For years, a postcard of Marie Curie hung in her teenage bedroom, acting as a role model. Her awareness of women’s place in science shaped her journey long before she made it a commitment.

In secondary school, at the Fête de la Science festival, she met an astrophysicist giving a talk on galaxies. “I realised you could actually get paid to look at the stars!” she recalls. The idea took root. At the same time, she closely followed the work of underwater archaeologists searching for La Pérouse’s ships. “It wasn’t astrophysics, but I’d discovered the careers offered by scientific research.”
 

Heading for space

As a teenager, she seized her first opportunity. She attended a lecture by Claudie Haigneré in Paris on Europe’s space programme. On the advice of the French astronaut, she applied for an internship with the Director of Communications at the European Space Agency (ESA). “I was able to do a one-week internship at the ESA when I was just 15! As someone who loved science, but also languages and culture, I was fascinated by the agency’s environment.”

During high school, she attended events organised by the Femmes & Sciences association, and her physics teacher encouraged her to take part in the Physics Olympiad. After her A-levels, she chose to do a competitive preparatory course, with space engineering in mind. Then, after a year, she enrolled at Pierre and Marie Curie University (now Sorbonne University) and began a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. A lecturer encouraged her to undertake an astrophysics internship at the University of Oxford and wrote her a letter of recommendation. At the time, she was 19 years old. “It was the summer they discovered the Higgs boson. The atmosphere there was just incredible!” she recalls with emotion. On her return, she decided to enrol in a Master’s degree in astrophysics.

At the Paris Observatory, through an internship linked to the ESA’s BepiColombo mission, she discovered plasma physics – “a state of matter that is very rare on Earth, but which makes up 99 per cent of the universe.” At the intersection of mathematics and physics, this subject enables her to combine space exploration with the study of various astrophysical objects.

Then, in her second year of her Master’s degree, Léa Griton explored the planet Mercury at LESIA¹ (Laboratory for Space Studies) using data from the American probe Messenger. A PhD seemed the natural next step to her. She devoted her thesis to the preparations of the BepiColombo mission, which was due to launch a month after her thesis defence in autumn 2018. She witnessed the launch from French Guiana at that time. After a postdoctoral fellowship, where she took part in preparatory studies for projects related to the space missions led by ESA and NASA, she was appointed senior lecturer at Sorbonne University in 2021, where she re-joined LESIA, now known as LIRA (Laboratory for Instrumentation and Research in Astrophysics).

Passing on knowledge

Léa Griton now divides her time between research and teaching. She introduces Master’s students to space engineering to astrophysics, and teaches plasma physics at the Paris Observatory and planetary science at the Geosciences Department. 

She also introduces first-year undergraduate students to the realities of research from the moment they arrive at university, asking them to analyse data from space probes. Finally, at the doctoral school, she supports young researchers in their post-thesis phase, working alongside a psychologist to help them plan their career paths, choose the right contracts and develop a healthy work-life balance. These are also opportunities to address the issues of gender equality in research.

Committing to gender equality…

Although she did not initially consider her scientific career in terms of gender, Léa Griton now admits to having “been subjected to gender stereotypes without realising it. They often operate quietly, fuelled by narratives that celebrate genius and solitary excellence, and which, for a long time, have mainly featured men”, she explains. It is only with hindsight that she has come to appreciate their impact and has become mindful of situations that might hold female students back. For certain experiences leave their mark. During a bachelor’s degree internship in instrumentation in the Netherlands, she found herself in an all-male team. “They’d turned the ladies’ toilets into a storeroom and would tell me to go up to the secretaries’ floor, as if women could only be secretaries,” she laments. She returned from that apprenticeship falsely convinced that instrumentation just wasn’t for her.

She changed her mind whilst doing her postdoctoral research. In Toulouse, the only other female researcher on the team invited her to a picnic organised by the Femmes & Sciences association. “There, I met women from very different backgrounds.” The questions she had about competitive exams, career mobility, job insecurity and her personal life ceased to be solely her own.

As a result, Léa Griton has taken concrete action. She partakes in awareness-raising initiatives, mentors female PhD students, and gives talks at high schools, in France and abroad. In her laboratory, she has produced a tutorial to help her colleagues discuss science in schools without resorting to stereotypes. In her lectures, she highlights female physicists and astrophysicists and cites contemporary figures in leadership roles, such as the director of scientific programmes at ESA. “Having female role models is something that I missed when I was a student,” she explains.

Whilst she believes that the International Day of Women and Girls in Science remains largely overlooked, the figures are clear: “Women make up only around 22% of astrophysicists in France,” she points out – a proportion that has remained stagnant since the mid-2010s, according to a study by the association Femmes & Sciences, presented in 2022.

She also highlights the adverse effects of certain measures, such as the requirement that women make up 50% of panels and committees, even though they account for only 20% of the workforce. This results in an excessive administrative burden for female researchers. “We end up doing much more than our male colleagues,” she emphasises. Conversely, she advocates strict quotas for recruitment and promotion, where careers are truly shaped. Some countries, such as Ireland, have already implemented this policy, where the number of women admitted to master’s programmes or PhDs is adjusted according to the existing pool of candidates.

… starting at school

However, equality is not determined solely at university. It is also shaped during childhood. “Little girls do not self-censor at the age of seven,” she points out. “It is adults (teachers, parents, institutions) who pass persistent stereotypes on, sometimes without realising it.” As Vice-Chair of the Comité de liaison enseignants-astronomes (CLEA), she emphasises the importance of training primary school teachers, the majority of whom are women and 80% of whom have not studied science. This double factor can foster a sense of illegitimacy and unconsciously lead to the perpetuation of gender stereotypes, particularly in mathematics. “Young girls have less self-confidence,” she observes. It’s a pattern she sees at university: “A male student who gets 8/20 will tell me he didn’t study. Meanwhile, a female student who gets 8/20 tells herself she’s not cut out for science.”

Given the general decline in interest in science in recent years, she sees encouraging women to pursue science as a national priority. Rather than the image of the brilliant, solitary researcher, she advocates for a collaborative approach to science. “Given the current technological and scientific challenges, every talent is needed.” Interpersonal and teaching skills, along with the ability to explain, simplify and make sense of complex ideas, are just as important, in her view, as pure technical expertise.

Doubt as a source of strength

To those who doubt, she reiterates that they have the right to make mistakes, not to be perfect, and to waste time. “Doubt is a strength in research because conducting research means taking risks. Doubt and failure are part of the job. That’s also what makes these professions so vibrant.” The important thing, she insists, is that you don’t stay on your own, but seek out support, role models and networks.

For Léa Griton, research is a combination of opportunities, adaptability and collaborative projects where you are continuously pushing your own boundaries and encountering new people. Everything can come to a halt, start again or take a different turn. The constraints are real, yet there is a form of freedom. “The key word is perseverance,” she maintains. It’s a way of being in the world that extends far beyond the laboratory. Even without a job lined up, nothing is lost. “You don’t study science because you want to become an astrophysicist or nothing else. You learn to think, to adapt, to work with others. And those skills are invaluable everywhere,” she concludes.

[1] Laboratoire d’études spatiales et d’instrumentation en astrophysique (Observatoire de Paris-PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité)