“The difficulty for women often lies in guilt”
Business lawyer at the Thiam & Associates firm, registered at the Paris Bar, Stephanie Manguele works on complex financing, infrastructure, and energy projects in Africa. In this interview, she talks about her career, analyzes the mechanisms that still hinder women’s access to decision-making positions in business law, and shares her vision of clear, demanding, and assumed leadership in a strategic sector for the continent’s development.
Can you first talk about your career and what led you to business law in Africa?
Today, I am a business lawyer at Thiam & Associates, focusing on financing, infrastructure, energy, and strategic projects in Africa. My career has been built in particularly demanding legal environments, where technical mastery was a basic requirement, but never an end in itself. Early on, I understood that law cannot be dissociated from the economic, institutional, and human reality in which it operates. I quickly worked on complex, often cross-border operations involving international investors, financial institutions, industrial groups, and public authorities.
These cases required a keen understanding of texts, of course, but also an ability to grasp financial logic, political constraints, and local realities. It is at this intersection that I naturally gravitated towards business law, specifically towards financing and structuring projects. Africa emerged as a professional necessity. It is a continent where the needs for infrastructure, energy, and economic structuring are immense, and where law plays a crucial role in building trust. The lawyer is not just a technician there: they are a facilitator, a translator between international standards and local realities, sometimes even a mediator. I have always been convinced that law, when used well, can be a real development lever. This conviction guides my daily practice.
Why do women still remain a minority in decision-making positions in business law in Africa, despite their strong presence in universities?
Because the issue does not lie in training or talent, but in the structuring of long-term careers. Women are very numerous in law faculties today, often among the brightest profiles. They enter law firms, legal departments, and institutions with strong backgrounds and real ambition. However, the higher up the hierarchy, the rarer they become.
This phenomenon is not only related to overt discriminations. It is based on much subtler mechanisms: implicit projections on women’s future availability, persistent social expectations, and sometimes a gradual internalization of these limits. In fields like business law, financing, or major projects, power, risk-taking, and continuity are still too often associated with male trajectories.
There is also a question of role models. As long as women are not very visible in decision-making positions, it is more difficult to project oneself, both for themselves and for organizations. Rarity breeds rarity. This cycle only breaks when female career paths become numerous, visible, and assumed enough to be perceived as normal, not as exceptions.
What are the most underestimated obstacles in accessing partner or legal director positions?
One of the most underestimated obstacles is strategic invisibility. Many women are recognized for their seriousness, reliability, and technical excellence. But they are less often positioned on the dimensions that truly make a difference when it comes to promotions: client development, strategic speaking, embodying a vision.
In business law, especially in financing and structuring projects, access to decision-making positions relies as much on the ability to produce as on the ability to represent. Yet, women are still too often confined to execution roles, even on major cases. Another major obstacle is the lack of sponsorship. Mentoring is useful, but not sufficient. Sponsorship involves someone in a position of power taking a risk, associating you with visible issues, advocating for you when you are not in the room. Historically, these sponsorship networks have been male-dominated, and women have had less access, especially in the most exposed sectors. Finally, there is a rarely mentioned dimension: weariness. Being constantly in a situation of legitimization, having to adjust one’s behavior, prove oneself more, eventually weighs heavily. This invisible fatigue also explains why some women, despite being very competent, end up turning away from the most exposed positions.
Should one adapt their leadership as a woman in a still predominantly male environment?
Above all, one must adapt their understanding of the environment, without denying their identity. For a long time, women have been led to believe that they must adopt masculine codes to be credible: be tougher, colder, more authoritative. In reality, this strategy is often counterproductive and exhausting. Effective leadership is based on clarity, consistency, and credibility. In environments like business law or project financing, technical competence is essential, but it must be accompanied by the ability to decide, to cut through, and to take responsibility. Women sometimes tend to over-explain, to justify their decisions too much. However, legitimacy also comes from simplicity and assurance.
One must also accept that leadership is not always comfortable. Leading sometimes means displeasing, creating disagreement, setting boundaries. Being respected matters more than being liked. Women who succeed in the long term are often those who have accepted this reality without giving up their humanity.
How to reconcile demanding career, international ambitions, and family life, without giving up on either?
One must be very clear: perfect balance does not exist. However, there are successive, shifting balances that evolve with life and career stages. An international career in financing, infrastructure, or strategic projects involves periods of very high intensity, sometimes incompatible with full personal availability. The difficulty for women often lies in guilt. They still carry a double injunction: to succeed professionally without ever giving the impression of neglecting their personal life. A career is built over the long term. It includes acceleration phases and stabilization phases. Anticipation, support, delegation, and accepting imperfection are essential. One can have an ambitious career and a rich personal life, but not everything, all the time, perfectly balanced. Accepting this reality allows for lasting endurance.
What concrete advice would you give to a young woman today who aspires to become a business lawyer or a leader in the legal sector?
I would first tell her to think of her career as a strategic project, not as a series of imposed opportunities. Being technically excellent is essential, but one must also think about positioning, expertise, and visibility. In fields like financing or structuring projects, understanding decision-making mechanisms is as important as mastering texts. I would also tell her not to wait for a symbolic authorization to be ambitious. Ambition is not a flaw. It only becomes a problem when denied or poorly assumed. One must dare to say what they want, ask for visible cases, accept exposure. Finally, I would tell her not to censor herself too early. Business law is demanding, sometimes tough, but it is also profoundly structuring and empowering. With work, lucidity, and perseverance, it is possible to build a solid, useful career aligned with one’s values.
About Stephanie Manguele
Registered at the Paris Bar, Stephanie Manguele is a business lawyer. She practices at Thiam & Associates where she specializes in financing, infrastructure, and energy in Africa. She assists investors, financial institutions, and public actors on complex and cross-border projects with strong economic impact. She regularly addresses issues of governance and investment structuring in Africa. She is particularly interested in leadership challenges and women’s access to decision-making positions in the legal sector.
