UNESCO & Women@Dior: new edition of global conference to promote the empowerment of women

In conjunction with International Women’s Day, Dior and UNESCO hosted the latest edition of the UNESCO & Women@Dior Global Conference. The event at UNESCO headquarters in Paris celebrated education, equal opportunity, inclusion and gender equality, the priorities at the heart of the Women@Dior mentoring and educational program. 

Initiated in 2017 by Emmanuelle Favre, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Christian Dior Couture, the program has provided support for female students in nearly 60 countries. Women@Dior is designed specifically for a new generation of women eager to create a more sustainable world. In 2020, this commitment led Dior to join the Global Coalition for Education created by UNESCO. Each year some 400 young women benefit from mentoring around five core values for Dior: self-awareness, empowerment, inclusion, creativity and sustainability. The day culminated with the presentation of the winners of the Dream for Change Project. Five teams presented their project to encourage the independence of girls in their local communities. The prestigious jury was chaired by Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior Artistic Director for Women’s collections, and included documentary filmmaker Loïc Prigent.

The young mentorees and their mentors had an opportunity to dialogue with leaders from LVMH, Maison Dior and UNESCO. Franco-Iranian actress Mina Kavani and Hafsat Abiola, President of the Women in Africa organization, shared inspirational messages in speaking about their commitments. During this event marked by the power of sisterhood, Chantal Gaemperle, LVMH Group Executive Vice President of Human Resources and Synergies, Emmanuelle Favre and Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO, all shared their visions of the empowerment of women. Charles Delapalme, Managing Director of Christian Dior Couture and Monika Figlewicz, President of Christian Dior Couture China, discussed the role of men as allies for the success of women in both professional and personal domains. Maria Grazia Chiuri spoke with Karishma Swali, Artistic Director of the Chanakya Ateliers and founder of the Chanakya School of Craft, about the themes of feminism, creativity and craft. Successful women entrepreneurs  Hyojeong Kim, founder of NomadHer, and Maud Caillaux, creator of Green Got, were also among the guest speakers, offering insights on creating businesses with positive social impact.

To cap the inspiring day, mentees and professors from prestigious schools including the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM)) EFAP (L’École des Nouveaux Métiers de la Communication), created a collective work of art to be passed on to future cohorts. The duo Ibeyi provided musical entertainment during the conference as well. A video of the event will be available on the Christian Dior Couture LinkedIn page and the official Women@Dior site from March 13.