“I was always told that it was a man’s job.” That’s good, since she was little, she’s liked to “show boys that ‘girls can do it too'”. It’s this spirit of challenge that pushed her towards high-level sport. All the way to the French Ne-Waza jujitsu team, Brazilian ju-jitsu. 3rd at the European championships. 2nd at the Paris international tournament.
At the same time, holder of a state sports instructor certificate, and black belt 2e dan, she teaches judo in Montendre and Mirambeau, in Charente-Maritime. The opportunity to be a role model for many students who admired him. “When little girls already see that their teacher is a girl, they say to themselves that it’s possible.”
Even on the aircraft carrier “Charles-de-Gaulle”
But after many years as an employee of an association, a fairly precarious status, Audrey Marchegay is thinking about changing path. It was a boilermaker friend who introduced him to welding. “And it resonated with me. When I was little, I always saw my father welding in the garage. I love the idea of starting from an idea, a need and being able to completely make an object,” she describes.
“When you want to do something, you can do it, and you even have to do it.”
So the thirty-year-old, mother of three daughters, returned to school and took her certificate of equal qualification in metallurgy (CQPM) welding, while doing her apprenticeship in the Soumagne company, in La Rochefoucauld. “I learned a lot there, particularly about the diversity of pieces that we can make.” A springboard which led her, from her diploma in hand, to recruitment at Naval Group, in Ruelle-sur-Touvre. “A magnificent opportunity, because the working and practice conditions there are very good. I was able to continue training at their welding school, I never stop learning.”
Audrey Marchegay received the female vocation prize.
Repro CL
A faultless career, which pushed Naval Group to offer her, for two years, to go on a mission on the aircraft carrier “Charles-de-Gaulle, where she assembles, dismantles, changes parts. “It’s a great source of pride,” enthuses the energetic thirty-something, “even if, with three children, it requires a bit of organization.” So she does these two months in Toulon during the summer, juggling childcare solutions. “But it’s important for me to show my daughters, aged 13, 13 and 10, that when you want to do something, you can do it, and even, you have to do it.”
Godmother of the association “Elles Bougent”
She also transmits this message today as godmother of the “Elles Bougent” association. She will testify, talk about her career and her job, in colleges and in particular tell teenage girls that “no, it’s not just a man’s job”. That “now, with the tools we have at our disposal, it is no longer a matter of force. On the contrary, it also requires attention to detail, skill and that if they like manual work, many professions are available to them.” A speech she would have liked to have been given to her when she was young.
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