CONTENTS - L'Oréal

It could not have happened 60 years ago
L’ORÉAL-UNESCO FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE 2005
L’ORÉAL-UNESCO AWARDS 2005: The Laureates
“Going back in time, one has to admit that, although
progress has been slow, the situation for women scientists
has been improving: I was elected President of the Physics
Society of Japan by male physicists, and that could not have
happened 60 years ago, when my mother was not even
granted access to university. It is clear that male physicists
recognize the scientific achievements of female scientists.
My advice to a young person wanting to become a scientist
would be: ‘Forget you are a man or a woman, and let the
revolution inside you lead the way.’
“However, the main reason there are still so few young girls
going into science is that it is rather difficult to find models
of women scientists. If a woman is a singer or a painter or
a writer, everyone can find and enjoy her songs, her
paintings or her novels. But the achievements of a woman
scientist are for the most part presented in scientific
papers which are not so accessible to a lay person. This is
why I really appreciate the fact that the L’ORÉAL-UNESCO
awards are given to women scientists and made public to
everybody, and not just to scientists.”