Archeology is a very tempting environment for history buffs. If in the collective imagination, we think that there are almost only men who practice this profession, know that women also excel in it. This is particularly the case of Christelle, archaeologist with INRAP.
Firefighter, policewoman, archaeologist or even a works supervisor, are professions that are too rarely heard in women. Fun fact: women also do this type of job and they do it brilliantly! Because nothing should prevent a child from dreaming and doing everything to exercise the profession of his dreams, we have collected inspiring, fascinating and edifying testimonials. Proof that: yes, whether you are a girl or a boy you can become whatever you want!
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Christelle has a job that fascinates most children: archeology. When you hear this word, you immediately imagine setting off to discover buried treasures. It must be said that this is how archeology is portrayed in cartoons and movies.
If the real job of an archaeologist is "slightly" (not to say very) different from what we have in mind, Christelle is passionate about her activity. Yet this is not the path she was originally intended for. Younger, she wanted to be a fighter pilot, "Especially to fly planes that were going very fast", as she tells us. An ambition often repressed by the lack of women in this environment: “I was told it was better for me to be an airline pilot because there were only men who were fighter pilots. " It was not this remark, however, that discouraged her from pursuing a career in aviation, but rather the subjects in which it was necessary to excel to get there. "The route I was given was very hard science-centric and I was not at all good at math so that dream has faded away.", she recalls.
"I had a real eye-opener"
Christelle confides that she fell into archeology "A bit by chance", by enrolling in a DEUG in art history and archeology (equivalent to a bachelor's degree today). "I was tired of the school subjects we had been doing since middle school and wanted to explore more academic subjects. I was rather drawn to art and thought it was an interesting approach ", she says. During his first year, however, he was asked to practice archeology while on vacation: “That's when I had a real eye-opener. I then specialized in archeology. "
Today Christelle works with INRAP (the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research). “My job is to do preventive excavations just before a development (new buildings, subdivisions, etc.). This is a particular practice of archeology, because we do preventive archeology unlike universities where they are more research programs over several years and where they have time. On our side, we have a timetable to respect ”, she explains. Before adding: “Before construction, the state may request a diagnosis, which is an initial assessment of the archeology of a site. If the diagnosis seems relevant to the regional archaeological services (DRAC), they can order an extensive additional excavation and there everything is opened. That is to say, we descend layer by layer to the natural terrain, and at each stage we document, we photograph, we bring in topographers, etc. In short, we record absolutely everything we see and we are able in the end to give an overview of all the human occupations that have taken place on this plot today to the first historical human, even prehistoric settlements. "
An exciting job, then, but one which, like all jobs, has advantages and disadvantages. "I love the time of the search. This is the part that requires the most responsiveness, good management of the team, time, and allocated budgets. This is the most exhilarating part for me. Afterwards, when you get back to the office you have to process all the data that you have collected and make reports and that is less fun ", she concedes. Christelle considers herself lucky to be able to discover very varied sites and different eras: "My favorite thing is working in the city, because the remains are better preserved and can be seen over several centuries. But sometimes, in rural areas, on large fields where we think there is nothing, we will find a flint that has not seen the light for several years and that is still moving. . "
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Of "archaeo-sexism"?
For Christelle, the fact that archeology is a human profession is above all a cliché conveyed by the representation that one can have of it. “There are a lot of girls in archeology, from college to the professional world. At INRAP, there are as many women as there are men. But we remain publicly represented by men. Yet we can think of Indiana Jones, but we can also think of Lara Croft, even she is more sexualized than the other ", she says.
Despite this, the archaeologist has already encountered some sexist behavior. “It’s true that we sometimes wonder if we are taken seriously right away by our interlocutors – who are, most of the time, men. Especially when you're a woman, quite young and in charge of a construction site. I'm already talking to a male colleague rather than to me, because for him, it was not obvious that I was the boss. Usually, when they don't know us, they always talk to the man first. And this, whatever their generation ", she laments.
In 2019, an exhibition in Nanterre and Paris had already questioned sexism in archeology. The "Paye ta Truelle" initiative and the Archéo-Éthique association had in fact collected and illustrated several testimonies from women victims of sexist remarks and gestures, in particular on excavation sites, to alert on the subject. “When I was a student, on a university school building site, the professor who was in charge of the excavations and his assistants (site managers) had fun throwing small gravel in the cleavage of excavators digging and digging. to shovel. They even devised a point calculation system depending on where the gravel was going to land ", could one read on one of the posters on display. A phenomenon that does not seem to have subsided. On the Paye ta truelle platform, the last testimonial dates from… February 2021.
Within INRAP itself, women also appear to be at a disadvantage. According to the Observatory for Equality between Women and Men in Culture and Communication of 2020, the employees of the scientific and technical sector of the institute are still paid 5 to 9% less than men (data available between 2015 and 2017). In the area of activity "Museums and heritage", to which INRAP is connected, 9 women hold the highest management position for 12 men. While inequalities tend to disappear, they are still present.
Christelle assures us, to get there in this job, you have to hang in there and never let go : "We must continue to believe in it, if this is something that remains a childhood dream in others, we must know that there are people who live from it and that anything is possible. "