Hélène Maige was the first woman to work as an ‘assistante’ (junior member of the faculty’s teaching staff) in the botany laboratory at Lille’s Faculty of Science, in 1937.
The daughter of the Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Science, Albert Maige, in 1927 she married Maurice Hocquette, one of her father’s students, who she studied alongside for part of her time there.Graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1925, she went on to study pharmacy at the Lille Combined Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, graduating in 1927.
In 1924, she was appointed ‘aide-préparatrice’ (lab assistant) in medical zoology at the same faculty. She became an ‘assistante’ in 1934, before transferring to the botany laboratory of the Lille Faculty of Science in 1937, where she specialised in plant and agricultural biology. She then worked alongside her husband, ending her career as a ‘maître-assistante’ (more senior member of the faculty’s teaching staff) in 1966.
Notes written by Marie Lefevre.
This short profile was written as part of the first edition of the Université avec un grand Elles (Women Who Shaped the University) exhibition held in 2019.