The Women@Dior program has already provided educational and mentoring opportunities for 2,500 young women
Dior is extending its partnership with UNESCO, Women@Dior, which provides opportunities for young women through mentorship and education. Deputy managing director in charge of human resources and sustainable development at Dior, Olivier Sastre, made the announcement on Thursday, at the organization’s fifth-annual conference, which was held at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters.
Launched in 2017, the program has since supported 2,500 young women selected from a wide range of studies, including business, engineering, art, hospitality, communication, international relations, and, of course, fashion. To date, mentees have spanned over 60 countries and represent almost 90 nationalities. Through a state-of-the-art online education program built on core values of self-care, autonomy, creativity, inclusion, and sustainability, Women@Dior mentees have access to courses taught by professors from schools such as Central Saint Martins in London, Bocconi University in Milan and HEC in Paris, and are also paired with carefully chosen Dior mentors.
There’s also an annual global conference held at UNESCO with inspiring speakers to empower young women and assert the power of sorority. This year’s edition saw the reveal of the Dream for Change Project winners, who were selected by the audience among five finalists. The two winners were Mama Maisha, a nongovernmental organization that teaches financial literacy to female vendors in Kenya’s informal markets, and Femini’lab, a French platform for young women entrepreneurs that organizes workshops in high schools and runs an online training platform. The conference also featured speeches by world champion skydiver Domitille Kiger and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Zuriel Oduwole, whose advocacy work contributed to the passage of a law criminalizing child marriage in Mozambique.
Speakers highlighted challenges for a time when women’s rights are at risk globally, and chairman and chief executive officer of Christian Dior Couture, Delphine Arnault, reaffirmed women’s empowerment and inclusion as priority needs.
