andyt andyt:
I only know them from their ads - a sexy woman purring how she's worth it. There didn't seem to be any mention of her academic achievements.
I guess having taken some chemistry has also exposed me to the history of the profession. I knew that not only was Florence Nightingale an accomplished nurse and responsible for the modern battlefield hospital, she was also an accomplished statistician. She saw that putting Mercury and Iron on their faces to add colour wasn't the best thing for women's health, when she started 'Elisabeth Arden'. Just as Eugène Schueller saw that the things women used to dye their hair were also dangerous when he started 'L'Oreal'.
Don't judge what modern capitalism has made of these institutions. Their beginnings are directly in line with awarding these awards to women who excel in the sciences.