"Women in Science" important for China

Mankind has to solve many problems in its stride for improvements in the life of all inhabitants of our blue planet. It therefore needs the intelligence and creativity of all people, not only of men, but also of women.

In 1998, L’Oréal decided to work alongside UNESCO, the United Nations organisation responsible for Education, Science and Culture, to create the "For Women in Science" contest. With this L’Oréal seeks to participate in the dialogue between cultures and to work for a better understanding between men and women from different traditions.

China is an important and integrated part of this Women in Science activities. Not only are famous Chinese experts members of the jury which is deciding each year about the winners, also among the winners themselves there have been several outstanding female scientists both from the mainland of the People’s Republic of China and from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. In 2000, Ms. CHEN Saijuan, professor of Shanghai Ruijin Hospital, vice president of Shanghai Institute of Hematology won the "Special Honor" while Ms. WANG Yufeng, Assistant Professor of Central East Normal University won the "UNESCO-L’Oreal fellowship". In 2001 and 2002, Ms. XIU Ruijuan, President of Institute of Microcirculation of Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, and Ms. Nancy Yuk-Yu, department head of Biochemistry of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology won the "Special Honor" respectively.

In 2003, Ms. LI Fanghua, Physician and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences won the L’Oréal-Unesco Award, which is also called "Nobel Prize For Women". In 2004, Ms. Nancy Yuk-Yu participated in the selection of L’Oréal-Unesco Award again and she finally was honoured.

Well-Being and Sustainability are overarching concepts for a society

Using beauty products but living in an unhealthy, filthy environment makes no sense. Having beautiful hair but bad working and living conditions is not harmonious.

Well-Being in the society is connected to a satisfactory and healthy situation in all parts of life. For an international company, which sees itself as a part of the global society, this means to develop and follow an ethic code of conduct. Taking the United Nations’ declaration of Human Rights as a basis, respectful treatment of the employees, the consumers, the business partners as well as the environment assures the sustainable development of both the company and the society.

L’Oréal as the leading company engaged in the beauty business, developed such a Code of Business Ethics, which covers what is expected of employees both in the way they do business but also in their day-to-day contacts with others within the organization. The code, which is available since the year 2000 in all languages spoken by the 50,000 employees, focuses on six areas: Respect for the law, for individuals, for the consumer, for the environment as well as the principles of partnership and of loyalty and integrity.

The strict prohibition of child labour within the company and in the suppliers and partners companies, privacy guarantees in the context of Internet access and environmental initiatives are examples of how the code is put into practice.