Sunday, March 26, 2006

An online forum for women in science ... finally

I wouldn't normally heap kudos on a company like L'Oreal. The cosmetic giant's marketing schemes are partially responsible for the self-esteem and body-image problems of an entire generation of women ... well, that and my gender's unreasonable expectation that our wives and girlfriends resist aging and remain fresh-faced pumped-up supermodels even as we males slowly morph into pot-bellied pigs with comb-overs and the need for PDE-5 inhibitors.

Still, it's nice to see that L'Oreal, in conjunction with UNESCO, has launched an open, online forum designed to support and highlight the role in women in science. As reported on the wonderful yet underappreciated news resource SciDev.net, the AGORA forum "will focus on topics such as science education for girls and women, women of science and sustainable development, bioethics and diversity."

Hopefully, this forum will not languish in obscurity like so many UNESCO projects but will become a dynamic community that supports the role of women in science and academia, and that leads even more women to demand greater (and equal) access to education, particularly in developing countries.

2 comments:

Chris MacDonald said...

I wonder if this has anything to do with L'Oreal's recent takeover of the Body Shop?
In a recent
blog entry, I pointed out that such a merger makes one wonder about the effect these 2 companies will have on each other's values.
Maybe this new forum is part of L'Oreal's new social conscience?

Karama said...

Thanks for the tip, Sean!