Clé de Peau Beauté: Supporting Education for Girls
In October 2019, Clé de Peau Beauté announced a global partnership with UNICEF to support girls’ education and empowerment around the world. The brand pledged the world’s largest contribution of USD 8.7 million in support of UNICEF’s Gender Equality Program. In this way, the brand has helped to promote the organization’s effort to empower 7.9 million girls globally with skills for the future through education, skills development, and empowerment programs.
Due to the impact of COVID-19, education activities have been disrupted in recent years. Our increased reliance on technology has made it clear that the future will demand a greater focus on STEM fields. Clé de Peau Beauté, in partnership with UNICEF, is supporting programs for young girls to receive STEM education and acquire skills that will be useful in the future. In September 2021, the brand team held a Virtual Field Visit (online tour) to connect with students, parents and school teachers in Kyrgyzstan — one of the partnership’s supported countries and regions. Program participation not only helped increase the number of female students in STEM fields, but also helped eliminate stereotypes regarding female students pursuing such fields.
In 2019, Clé de Peau Beauté also announced a long-term philanthropic endeavor to advocate for girls’ education, empowering them for a brighter tomorrow. The brand launched the Power of Radiance Awards to honor women from around the world who have acted to drive positive change through knowledge.
In 2021, the Power of Radiance Awards recognized Alyona Tkachenko from Kazakhstan in honor of her efforts to advocate and promote STEM education among young women and girls in her country. Clé de Peau Beauté’s regional markets were invited to learn more about STEM education through a STEM game the brand developed with the support of Alyona Tkachenko. Educators, parents and children were invited to learn more about this subject.
Funding for these charity programs comes from a portion of global sales of Clé de Peau Beauté’s bestselling product — The Serum. The brand will continue to support women who have a positive impact on society.
Shiseido Travel Retail: Supporting Marginalized Women and Girls in Cambodia
Since 2020, Shiseido Travel Retail has partnered with Friends-International on the “Empower Her” initiative, which aims to help young women from disadvantaged backgrounds in Cambodia break the cycle of poverty by providing education, vocational beauty training, access to job placement opportunities, and employment support. In support of the initiative, we have contributed cash donations and beauty products. We are also actively involved in the development of the training curriculum.
In 2021, 78 students received vocational beauty training — 41 of whom were placed in employment.
International Women's Day: Shiseido Global Action
On International Women’s Day on March 8, 2021, regional headquarters all over the world organized a wide range of activities to support women. At our global headquarters in Japan, “Enhance your confidence to boost your prospects” was selected as the global theme for the entire Shiseido Group. Six female executives around the world took part in a relay event, sharing their profiles, career opportunities and messages of support. Around 24,000 employees participated in Gender Equality training via our e-learning platform. We also held an open discussion about gender with female artists at the Shiseido Gallery.
At our regional headquarters for Asia Pacific and Travel Retail, both based in Singapore, we promoted initiatives to urge managers and employees alike to consider gender issues. These included the distribution of feature articles on International Women’s Day to promote awareness, and the creation of original coasters to support the income of artist-mothers in difficult situations.
Our regional headquarters in China donated 6,000 cosmetic products to healthcare workers treating COVID-19 infected patients via the China Women’s Development Foundation. We also held a leaders’ panel discussion regarding their careers in China.
At our regional headquarters for the Americas, we held a panel discussion featuring female leaders where each employee shared their thoughts on International Women’s Day. Employees also shared photos of support on the company’s intranet. In addition, we conducted a workshop with a support group for survivors of domestic violence. Employees wrote what they learned from the workshop and expressed their empathy with survivors via postcards delivered to the group.
Finally, our regional headquarters for Europe produced a video featuring interviews with its employees, who shared their thoughts on diversity and inclusion initiatives and the importance of female leaders.
