Rooted in cultural barriers and stereotypical gender roles, women are often stereotyped as caregivers or homemakers and restricted in their fields of study to teaching, nursing, fine arts and home economics amongst the like.
That’s why Olay has launched its #STEMTheGap initiative, as part of which the brand is encouraging more Indian girls to fearlessly pursue STEM education and careers. To action this, Olay has launched a STEM scholarship program for girls in partnership with LEAD, India's foremost School EdTech player.LEAD works with over 3000 schools, most of which serve low-income families, to deliver international standard education to 1.2 million+ students. Specifically, LEAD transforms schools by helping teachers design the curriculum and find ways to better convey the concepts to students, whilst also securing books and other quality resources. It’s exactly this commitment to high quality education in geographical areas that may not otherwise have access that makes LEAD the ideal partner for Olay’s STEM scholarship programme.
The girls who are recipients will be enabled with a very good experience and education, allowing them to pursue their passions and interests. Since 2021, Olay is sponsoring tuition fees, as well as tablets and data packs for girls across 6 states in India.
The latter two are particularly critical with the backdrop of the pandemic – many families don’t have multiple smartphones or devices at home, so providing tech-enabled solutions to ensure the girls can continue learning, even in an online or hybrid environment of physical and digital classrooms, is hugely meaningful.