After completing high school, Leger joined the University of Paris, where she worked toward a bachelor's degree in Atomic and Molecular Physics.

She remained in Orsay for her doctoral research, working in the laboratory of Georges Durand and Madeleine Veyssié.

She defended her thesis on the elastic and dynamic properties of mesomorphic phases under the supervision of P.-G. de Gennes in 1975.

She returned to the Laboratoire de Physique des Solides Adhesion, Friction and Polymer group.

[citation needed] In 2016 the French National Centre for Scientific Research held a conference in Léger's honour.