TWICE at TotalEnergies: an internal network promoting gender diversity and supporting women’s careers

For 20 years, the TWICE (TotalEnergies Women Initiative for Communication and Exchange) network has been proactive in promoting gender diversity at TotalEnergies. In Pau, Catherine Javaux, VP Subsurface R&D, and an active member of the network, shares her view and experience of a program that supports careers and is helping to change practices.

“A simple observation led to the creation of the TWICE network in 2006: the under-representation of women in managerial positions, in technical and industrial professions in particular. Given the situation, the decision was made to build an independent cross-functional network able to help female employees pursue career opportunities while making all the teams aware of the challenges of gender diversity,” she reminds us.

Today, TWICE is present in many of the Company’s entities worldwide and draws on a collective momentum. It is deliberately designed such that anyone can take part: women and men, whatever their profession or their hierarchical level.

As TWICE opens its June 2026 mentoring campaign to recruit Mentors and Mentees within the Company, its aim is also to be an inspiration for our external stakeholders. Catherine Javaux met up with the team led by Annie Schmitt, Deputy Director-General for Human Solidarity at the Regional Council of the Pyrénées Atlantiques. Alongside Chrystèle Latry-Villa, Methods and Support Advisor and manager of the new project, the local community has indeed decided to set up a network to promote women’s careers, drawing on the experience and advice of female employees from TotalEnergies.
 

Mentoring is at the heart of the program and a key lever

At TotalEnergies, female employees are supported for several months by mentors as they reflect on their careers, their professional choices, and their ambitions. The mentee defines the topic. This way of working helps women put things into perspective, structure their discourse, and build their self-confidence.

In addition to offering individual support, TWICE also focuses on less obvious obstacles. Feeling legitimate remains a crucial issue: many women still hesitate to seize opportunities if they do not tick all the boxes. The network contributes to changing mindsets by encouraging self-assertion and recognizing the worth of different career paths. Once again, the aim is to increase the number of women in technical professions, to continue making managers aware of the fact that diversity – not just gender diversity – is a performance lever, and to support women through programs suited to their seniority. 

“Being a mentor helped me better understand my young colleagues’ ambitions, difficulties, and feelings.I was able to dig beneath the surface when helping to nurture individual talents, factoring in the multifactorial context. Some of my mentees were able to imagine a bolder future for themselves, to better organize their workdays, to adjust interprofessional relationships in their teams, or even dare to go ahead with expatriation!” she tells us.

Over the past few years, the network has also learned to adapt to changes in the world of work. After a period marked by distancing and the loss of informal relationships, TWICE refocused its action on creating platforms for dialogue and exchanging ideas, essential to ensure collective momentum.
 

A model that can be transposed to other environments

The initiative resonates outside the Company and has aroused the interest of external players.

“The TWICE model is based on several simple yet structuring elements: a clear framework, a flexible organization with no hierarchical relationship, and a networking dynamic driven by the employees themselves rather than by HR functions.TWICE mentoring does not require any significant investment; it is easy to implement and establishes a bubble of trust between mentee and mentor centered on the confidentiality of exchanges.It is the mix between structure, experience and appropriation that makes it transposable – including for public players like the regional council – as mentors and mentees at TotalEnergies all consider that this program has nothing but advantages,” explains Catherine Javaux..

The issue today goes way beyond the aspect of equality. Gender diversity is also a performance lever for the company and the community. The variety of profiles, experience and points of view brings added value to decision-making processes and makes it easier to address today’s challenges.

From left to right : S. Andres, A. Schmitt and C. Latry-Villa for the Regional Council 64,
N. Nief and C. Javaux from TotalEnergies during a social gathering at the Stade du Hameau.

“Mentoring programs are still far and few between in regional governments and the experience acquired by the TWICE network over the past 20 years is a valuable source of inspiration for our organization.This partnership strengthened our resolve to build an open, mixed model, based on the belief that gender diversity is an issue that concerns us all. Our ambition is to test a program that meets our current needs by drawing on a tried and tested experience and adapting it to our own situation,”explains Annie Schmitt, in charge of the project’s strategic vision for the Regional Council.

“To us, what seems particularly transposable in the TWICE experience, is the balance between a structured framework and a great freedom of appropriation.Among the key lessons learnt is how important it is to have an approach in which the mentee is the main actor of her development, allowing her to be the initiator of discussions with her mentor and to be the driving force in the relationship. The experience gleaned from TWICE also highlights just how decisive the initial stages of the mentoring relationship are, as this is when expectations are made clear and shared objectives determined. Setting a framework from the start is a key factor in giving meaning to the support provided and making sure the relationship lasts in the long term,”  explains the project manager, Chrystèle Latry-Villa.