Marlène Schiappa began her career at Havas 20 years ago, when the agency was known as Euro RSCG. An entrepreneur at heart, she then, at the age of 24, set up one of the first web content production agencies with Yahoo! and later became the associate director of an independent press and communications agency.
Simultaneously, she founded Maman travaille, the first network for working mothers, which she presided over for about a decade. This network achieved a transparency pact in the allocation of daycare spots and the extension of paternity leave.
A feminist activist, she has published numerous articles and about thirty books, some of which are best-sellers, including the first book in France on rape culture and the first to theorize the “mother ceiling,” notably with Dalloz, Stock, and Grasset. She also co-writes engaged projects for television.
An expert for the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, she has published numerous analytical notes on women’s rights worldwide and motherhood. She has frequently spoken in businesses and major schools (ENA, HEC, etc.) about public, HR, and CSR policies on gender equality, and has appeared multiple times in multilateral bodies, including the G7 and the UN, where she has, among other things, presided over a Security Council dedicated to the protection of women in peace processes.
She has served as deputy mayor in charge of gender equality and LGBT issues, vice-president of the economic development agency in Le Mans, French Tech delegate, and regional councilor of Île-de-France in Paris. A self-taught individual, she pursued a degree in communication – new media and a master’s in modern literature while working and raising her two children.
Marlène Schiappa was a minister in President Macron’s governments from 2017 to 2023, after participating in the presidential campaign and the creation of En Marche from 2016. As the Minister of Women’s Rights, she led the major cause of the five-year term, the Grenelle des violences conjugales, and passed numerous laws for women’s rights, such as the criminalization of street harassment. She then served as the Minister Delegate for Citizenship under the Minister of the Interior, and as the Secretary of State for the Social and Solidarity Economy and Associative Life under the Prime Minister. In these roles, she facilitated encounters between the worlds of economy and commitment. An active citizen, she continues to serve as a regional councilor, elected representative of Paris, and member of the economic development commission.
Marlène Schiappa is a member of several feminist NGOs and engaged in numerous networks, particularly those in Corsica, where her roots lie. She donates the royalties from her legal guides to associations (le 3919 and Regards de femmes) and has received several awards: the Secularism Prize from the Grand Orient de France, the Political Revelation Prize from the Press Club, Most Media-Focused Minister for several consecutive years, Forbes Women of the Year Trophy, and is part of the Young Global Leaders of Davos.
As a high-profile and media-exposed personality who has fought to bring her battles to the public debate agenda, she understands all the facets of the challenges faced by the leaders she now supports at Tilder.
