They are business leaders, high-level athletes, creators in the field of culture,… France Bleu Occitanie is highlighting this Tuesday, March 1st women from our territory, members of the “ambassadors club” of Toulouse. France Bleu is a partner of the first edition of the “Train for equality”, an operation organized by the women’s foundation until March 7.

A train crisscrosses France with the aim of promoting women’s rights, gender equality, with activities, conferences, educational and fun content. Associations fighting against harassment or violence against women are present. This Tuesday, March 1, theThe train stops at Toulouse Matabiau stationlane 6, from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

A female director of a large hotel in Toulouse

In Toulouse, Sandra Lampee is director of the Grand Hôtel de l’Opéra, since 2012. Originally from Austria, she studied at a hotel school before arriving in France. She was sales manager for the Holiday Inn Toulouse Airport, before becoming hotel manager in Paris and returning to Occitanie. She now manages a team of 20 people, in addition to being a mother of three children., “You have to make sacrifices“, she confides, “it is a job where he must be permanently available, be reachable at any time, but the human contact with the employees, the customers is a real pleasure”.

In the independent hotel industry, in 2012, we were two or three directors of establishments in Toulouse. Today, two-thirds or even half of the leaders are women.

Sandra Lampee regrets, however, that in chain hotels (the major hotel group brands), women are less present in positions of responsibility, “when there is a catering team to manage, with chefs, it is sometimes more complicated for women, the environment is very masculine“.

A baby of industry converted into industrial tourism

Lucie Schmitz is Group Managing Director Manatour an SME which organizes visits to industrial and scientific sites in Occitania (Airbus, the Aéroscopia museum, EDF) and has just won the contract for visits to the Opéra Garnier in Paris. She started at Liebherr Aerospace in Toulouse at the age of 20, later created the association of industrial apprentices and worked for the Union of Metallurgy Trades. At the time women are very rare in this environment and the wage gap between men and women is not an issue: “in 1998, i had no idea how much other men paid, it was taboo, but i didn’t feel less well treated in terms of pay or recognition“. Lucie Schmitz now manages more than a hundred employees and the field of industrial tourism is much more feminized : “there are 80% women in Manatour, but we would like to balance more, we receive a lot of female applications to become guides or for positions in communication, but men are welcome.”

A French beach volleyball champion

Alexia Richard, 25, is reigning French champion in beach volleyball two fold. She has been playing in the France team for 8 years. This high-level sportswoman works in communication and is preparing at the same time for the next Olympic Games in Paris 2024. The Pôle France beach-volley is based in Toulouse within Creps. This high-level athlete regrets that beach volleyball still suffers from a hypersexualized image: “a lot of men still come to the stands to see women perform in bikinis.”

We would like the sports bra to no longer be compulsory during international competitions, when the outside temperature is above 13 degrees, and to be able to wear a T-shirt. Bikini wear can influence performance when a player feels uncomfortable.

Alexia Richard would like women’s beach volleyball to be more publicized as a sport and not as a spectacle to rinse the eye.