[2] A history and geography teacher, including at high school Sainte-Marie de Blois, she became active in politics in 1974, during the campaign of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

In the weeks prior to the 1993 legislative election, Gourault emerged on the departmental political scene by campaigning against Socialist Jack Lang, then Mayor of Blois.

In 2014, Gourault returned as a municipal councillor of La Chaussée-Saint-Victor on the list led by Stéphane Baudu, who subsequently assumed the mayorship.

He included her in his shadow cabinet in 2010, in preparation for the 2012 presidential election; in this capacity, Gourault served as opposition counterpart to Minister of Education Luc Chatel.

[7][8] On 12 December 2017, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe entrusted Gourault with the informal function of monitoring the "Corsican file", following the victory of the nationalists in the territorial election.

[9] In 2018, Philippe mandated her with the mission of opening the dialogue between the local elected officials of the Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin to organise the merger of these two departments.