Marina Flindell, one of the “Rising Talents” from JPMorgan is passionate about what she does, is extremely humble about her achievements and has a beautiful, energising smile. She says that she was shocked when she first heard that she had been selected as one of the Rising Talents. She is very excited to be one of the 20 Rising Talents and said that this recognition has boosted her energy and enthusiasm to do even more.

At the age of 30, she co-founded the Pushkin Academy of Russian Heritage in New York. What started in a rented Manhattan public school with 17 students has now grown to 90 students aged 2.5 years to 9years. She said, “we wanted our children to be bicultural providing an environment for them to learn and speak Russian. ” Establishing a business was tough but she is very happy with the results. Marina also has an 11month old daughter who accompanies her on Saturdays to the Pushkin academy for the Mommy and Me class.

It’s great to see her energy and I was inspired by how she manages to have a successful career and a baby and give back to society through this social project. This gives many young women the hope that we can also have it all. It is hard to think big on your own but when you get the right support it becomes easier.

Marina feels that she has been extremely lucky for having met the right people at the right time. She is thankful for her incredible parents who motivated her to achieve her dreams, her supportive husband who wants her to work, amazing boss who understands her and wonderful mentors and friends who challenge her. She believes that her network has been very useful and the trust that she has received from others has enabled her to trust others and develop them.

I believe in the old adage that the harder you work, the more luck you find. I hope that young women can learn from Marina and build their network of mentors, coaches and supporters and thereby make their own luck.

When I saw her speaking Portuguese while walking around in the Women’s Forum, I was happy to find someone who speaks my native language. Only after I learned that she was one of the “Rising Talents“. Joana Loureiro is a real woman entrepreneur. She is the General Manager of Junior Achievement in Portugal, the world’s largest organisation dedicated to educating students about entrepreneurship.

Joana told me that she knew Junior Achievement in the United States, where she followed a post-graduation course on Management of non-profit organizations. She then had the idea of bringing it to Portugal. Today, Junior Achievement Portugal has already established a network made up of over 600 volunteers and 600 teachers in 13o schools.

The advice she gives to people who think of becoming entrepreneurs are: first you have to try, to experiment. And the other important aspect is that you have to be willing to take risks. She said that in Portugal, for example, people tend to be very averse to risk.

With the importance of entrepreneurship growing in the world, it is quite amazing to see initiatives such as Joana’s in the Women’s Forum. We can hope that more women (and men) would be inspired by her and help create an entrepreneurial culture in other countries too.

The “Women for Education” prize, organized by the Elle Foundation and the Women’s Forum with the support of Renault, La Poste and in collaboration with the NGO Aide et Action, has just been awarded to Chekeba Hachemi (photo) and her NGO , Afghanistan Libre, an organization working for the economic, social and political development of young Afghan girls and women in Paghman, in the Kabul province.

The operation “Women for Education” (more info on the Elle Foundations’ blog) was launched last May in both Elle magazine (France) and nine of its international editions around the world. Three projects were finally chosen among 50+ that were submitted. The other two finalists were microcredit and vocational training for women in Benin, presented by ECIDEC; and a social entreprise for reintegration of girls and adolescents victims of sexual exploitation in Laos, presented by AFESIP.

Today, representatives of seven major corporations and organizations signed the “Call from Deauville“, which reports on the position of women in science and engineering and describes the signatories’ commitment to encourage young women into careers in these fields. The Call was signed in the context of the SciTechGirls initiative, a special program of meetings and exchange between some 100 young women from high schools, prep schools, universities and science schools, and some of the most accomplished women attending the Women’s Forum. We will blog on SciTechGirls later today, as the program is still unfolding. Here is the full text of the “Call from Deauville”, signed by Orange, L’Oréal Corporate Foundation, Cisco, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Suez, Thales, and Total.

The figures are shocking and call for immediate action—the place of women in science remains dire, in both public and private initiatives, in fundamental and applied research, and even among engineers.

Numerous studies, reports and recommendations give ample proof, filling up filing cabinets and putting to sleep even those with good intentions. A bad situation is getting worse.

It is time to take action. Too few girls and young women are embarking on scientific careers, leading to the development of a large-scale vocational crisis.

• At the university level, girls make up only 27% of students in fundamental and applied sciences.
• Among those who scored “very well” on the Bac S (scientific baccalaureat), 75% of boys went on to scientific preparatory schools vs just 53% of girls.
• In the Grandes Ecoles and engineering schools, girls make up only 25% of the student body.

It is time to take action. Women are perilously under-represented in public and private research.

• Women make up only 27% of researchers worldwide and just 28% of researchers in France; of which 33% work in the public sector and 20% in private companies.
• Out of 516 Nobel Prize nominees in science and medicine between 1903 and 2006, only 12 women have won the Award, less than 2.4%.

It is time to take action. A “glass ceiling” is holding back the professional progress of women, and this is especially apparent in science.

• In Europe, women represent 50.4% of professionals working in scientific-related fields, but only 29% of engineers, 29% of researchers and 15% of university professors.
• In French universities, 38% of associate professors are women, but a mere 16% are full professors.
• Women engineers are paid far less than their male counterparts: 3% less at the start of their careers and a staggering 42% less for women between the ages of 55 and 59.

We know the facts and we can predict the consequences. The time for sitting back, making observations and expressing regret is over—women have so much to offer in terms of imagination, contributing to research and innovation.

Tomorrow’s world is built today, now is the time for action—we are here, let’s do it.

To encourage girls and women to choose a scientific career path, we pledge:

• To update the image of science by giving aspiring young women role models to emulate.
• To provide information and to build self-confidence through innovative communication campaigns targeting young girls and their parents, including campaigns on academic orientation, consciousness raising and teacher training from primary school onwards.
• To reward girls’ performance, encouraging their talent through prizes, scholarships and increasing the number of women with visible roles in conferences and exhibitions.

Some of these initiatives have already been put into place by those signing the Call from Deauville. Many other projects are also underway, each representing the signer’s specificity, priorities and means.

However, we cannot act alone, the role of women in science is everybody’s business—public institutions, for the role they can play in education and for their legitimacy with politicians and public interest campaigns; corporations, for their recruitment and promotional capacities and support of numerous initiatives; and the media, to explain, raise consciousness and contribute to the creation of a feminine ideal for future
researchers and engineers.

Society on the whole needs to work on giving girls the confidence they need—science can offer a stellar future!