Christian Dior Couture and UNESCO celebrated the fifth anniversary of their joint Women@Dior initiative with a global conference held on 3 July at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
This year’s event focused on urgent global concerns, including the professional prospects of younger generations, equal access to education, and the importance of developing female role models. The conference brought together an international network of emerging women leaders and their mentors for a day of conversation and reflection.
Mentees from around the world, each representing Dior’s principles of excellence, openness, generosity, and sharing, took to the stage alongside mentors from the LVMH Group, Dior, and UNESCO. They were joined by high-profile guests from the arts, business, and sports sectors for a series of panel discussions on women’s empowerment from multiple perspectives.
Since launching in 2017, Women@Dior has provided mentoring and training to over 2,500 women across 140 countries. The initiative is open to university students and young professionals in disciplines such as business, fashion, engineering, hospitality, communications, and international relations. Each participant receives one-on-one guidance from Dior employees and gains access to lectures and digital learning opportunities.
The programme is centred around five guiding values:
- Self-care & Self-awareness – Building confidence through self-understanding
- Autonomy – Encouraging independence and responsibility
- Creativity – Encouraging innovative approaches to sustainable challenges
- Inclusion – Turning diversity into action with social impact
- Sustainable Development – Promoting education and culture as pillars of future societies
As a final component, Mentees undertake a “Dream for Change” project, where they apply what they’ve learned by creating community initiatives designed to empower women in their home regions.
In 2020, Dior expanded its impact by partnering with UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition. On World Youth Skills Day, the Women@Dior programme was made freely available to over 200 young women in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Jamaica, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka, demonstrating Dior’s ongoing commitment to educational equality and opportunity for women in vulnerable communities.
