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We conducted research in Romandy on the reconstruction of the educational and professional trajectories of paraplegic people. The life stories told by ten informants, five women and five men, indicate that they develop models of experiences of empowerment, or of regaining power over a constrained life course, faced with precautionary treatments which direct them towards a limited range of jobs deemed “possible” for them. Their stories reveal that the empowerment model of the vicarious figure (a role-model, a person whose life course is an example of success) allowed informants to choose educational or professional trajectories that contradicted precautionary assignments. The aim here is to show that the vicarious figure contributes to the development of the informants’ autonomy and the gendered identities supporting it. The educational trajectories of a man and a woman are compared, showing that in their educational rehabilitation, the vicarious figure, their gendered self-assignments and their gender representations in the worlds of education and work have played decisive roles.