Make science more accessible to women

A shared commitment

Our commitment began with a contradiction: even though women excelled at all levels of upper education, they were still poorly represented at the highest levels of scientific research. Through our long-term partnership with UNESCO, we are proud to shine a spotlight each year on outstanding women who have helped change the world through science.

Faced with the mounting challenges of our century, it is more important than ever that we continue to lend them our support. Each year we celebrate scientists hailing from every continent who incarnate the promise of a better world. The science they personify is modern, cross-disciplinary and open to the world: science working on behalf of humanity, ceaselessly pushing back the frontiers of knowledge, transforming and improving our lives and providing solutions to the enormous challenges that face our planet.

They address such urgent issues as aging populations, global warming, the extinction of species, and access to water, fighting pandemics and harnessing energy. The year 2011 is resolutely turned towards the sciences: the UN has proclaimed it the International Year of Chemistry and we celebrate the centennial of Marie Curie’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which will be sponsored in part by the L’Oréal Corporate Foundation.

This year, the program welcomes for the first time scientists from such widely spread countries as Estonia, Iraq, Panama and Sweden. For us, this ever broader community is a source of pride and ambition, which continues to motivate our cause year after year.