Recently, during the first “SHE” Sub-Forum of the World Laureates Forum which received support from L’Oréal China, the 95-year-old academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and China’s first female observatory director, Ye Shuhua, gave a thrilling speech in English to encourage women to break the “glass ceiling” and take action to fight for gender equality.
The reason behind this passion and inspiration is professional women, including female researchers, who still have to face inequalities in the workplace. “Change has happened, but the glass ceiling is incredibly resistant in research and innovation,” according to Alexandra Palt, executive vice president of the Fondation L’Oréal.
The pandemic and its accompanying lockdowns have not helped in closing the gap between men and women in society. Even women in science cannot escape the responsibilities attached to raising a child. “Women scientists with young children and those in the earlier stages of their careers, are hardest impacted by the pandemic,” Shamila Nair-Bedouelle said, the assistant director-general for Natural Sciences of UNESCO. “The world needs science and science needs women.”
For this reason, it has never been more important to champion women working in science and technology. Not only to encourage and inspire other women to join these fields, but also to normalize the fact that women can and should be leaders in this space.
L’Oréal has been doing this work for decades. The For Women in Science program has been running since 1998, in partnership with UNESCO to celebrate five female scientists, one from each geographic region. Since the creation of the program, 122 Laureates have been awarded, including some Chinese female scientists: Professor Li Fanghua, Ye Yuru,and Chen Hualan who is currently the vice chairman of the All-China Women’s Federation, and 2022 year’s laureate professor Hu Hailan. As an extension of the global award, L’Oréal China has worked with All-China Women’s Federation, China Association for Science and Technology, and China National Commission for UNESCO to establish “China Young Women In Science Fellowship” from 2004 and awarded 164 young scientists over the past 17 years.
The Fondation L’Oréal and UNESCO decided to find a different way to celebrate these women – with a virtual ‘For Women in Science’ festival. This festival will highlight “why and how female scientists will make a difference in a post-Covid world” through a mixture of TED-style talks, intimate interviews, debates and panel discussions.
According to Palt, medical solutions and health research has long been viewed as neutral and unbiased. Indeed, there are differences between men and women in terms of treatment, diagnosis, and symptoms, which are not always taken into account. With the digital technology revolution continuing to change how we live our lives, there might be new biases. Alexandra Palt and a number of speakers participated in the roundtable to discuss the “Unbiased health solutions for the future”.
Andrew Horne who is the professor of gynecology and reproductive sciences stated that the issue of women’s health has attracted increased attention. “Founders are much more concerned about ensuring that there’s a quality in the division of the finances into women’s health issues. In the states, for a condition like diabetes, which is as common in women as something like endometriosis.
First virtual For Women in Science Festival Photo: Courtesy of L’Oréal
“What we really need to do is be able to use digital means to collect huge amounts of data around symptoms in order to potentially develop our algorithms and identify patterns, which could help with the diagnosis of the condition. As many young women want to minimize the number of hospital visits, using things like apps, wearable tech, smart watchers can be helpful in collecting data and use digital technology to improve clinical care as well as trials around new treatments.”
In China, Yang Mei, vice president, innovative Healthcare Solutions Global, through her company uses cutting-edge technology such as big data, artificial intelligence, and deep learning to develop multiple digital systems to improve healthcare services. “We will find patients from electronic medical records, recruit them and help medical institutions conduct research, or use algorithms and modeling to predict which are the most relevant target population for research, and find the most effective treatment. I think this type of technology definitely is a very powerful tool to be able to improve the efficiency of doing research and help the researcher and the pharmacy companies to develop the medication more quickly and provide more effective services to the patients.”
UNESCO research has found that women used to make up just one quarter of research professionals, now that number is up to a third. In some countries, women working in life sciences have achieved parity in terms of workforce numbers. “There is progress in the numbers and there is progress on the awareness,” Palt said. “Now, we need to see the glass ceiling break down to put women at the level of recognition that they should have.”
Hu Hailan, the 2022 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science award laureate Photo:Courtesy of L’Oréal
The Foundation L’Oréal and UNESCO’s For Women in Science festival is one way of providing that recognition but it’s also about exposing the cracks in the system. “What we’re aiming for with this is to create awareness, create passion, and encourage future generations,” Palt said. “Because the pressure to change will come from society as a whole, not just from us.”
Roundtable: “Unbiased health solutions for the future” Photo: Courtesy of L’Oréal
