Eco-systemic analysis

L'Oréal USA Partners with Eranos to Boost Women's Confidence

Why does women’s confidence matter? Because the more confident a woman is, the easier it is for her to act. Confidence empowers women to talk, write, raise a hand, raise a fist, get into politics or start a company. A lack of confidence can keep a woman from bringing meaningful contributions to her community and prevent her from thriving personally. And that’s a problem for everyone, because when women thrive, societies prosper.

The problem

The world is entering a crisis of self-confidence. Affecting both men and women, each in its own way. Women, however, experience this “incredible and almost unimaginable belief that anyone can succeed”, whether through new technologies, political developments, or access to education. They assume their role fully, in traditionally patriarchal societies.

As the social utility of businesses changes along with the world, make-up brand IT Cosmetics must reassess the role it plays in the everyday lives of women, by asking themselves: “what fuels self-confidence ?" What challenges do women encounter while building their self-confidence ? What cultural elements should be mobilized, in order to support the cause of women depending on the country and the market ? But above all: how can a make-up company act in a world also shaped by its products?

Method

IT Cosmetics is launching the largest initiative ever taken towards understanding, measuring and increasing the self-confidence of women around the world.

In order to understand it, we are conducting an 8-month study phase, rendering it possible to isolate 14 sources of self-confidence, constituting an anthropological typology of the forces which increase and influence it. Subsequently, over a 3 year period, we structure a network of more than 140 women to understand how the local construction of confidence takes place. We analyze the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, South Korea, China, Australia, Russia and Mexico. We mobilize academic experts to help us filter out the influence of local culture, with great witnesses sharing their personal experiences.

We then conduct a study of over 10,000 women in order to measure and obtain the world’s first barometer of women’s self-confidence.

Results

As a result of this initiative, IT Cosmetics asserts itself as a cultural player and as an agent of positive change in society. Eranos produces an Academic Report and a Digest (published in March 2021), committed since the beginning to returning the data. Our initiative allows us to see where self-confidence is high and where it is low in ten countries, and more significantly, which sources weaken it on the local level, and which sources can be used as levers, in order to increase it.

We are currently working with all partners that wish to have access to the results, and to deploy the initiative locally.