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By the 1920s, the banking sector had already built up a rich, dense and complex system for continuous training; its links to promotion served, for the next sixty years, as the foundation for a career boost of a large number of staff. Based on personal interviews conducted with retired employees of Société générale, the present article looks at a specific branding culture and analyses the way in which a part of its personnel made use of and invested on this training. The proposed lines of training, whether internal, across banks or offered by the State, appear like non-neutral human resources management tools. The profiles of some members of staff were favoured over others’, with professional training thus contributing in the reinforcement of gender inequalities in the workplace. From the 1980s onwards, women’s access to managerial posts has been increasing, thus shifting the glass ceiling towards the most valuable and strategic posts for which continuous training no longer constitutes a determining factor.