There could be no better word to describe Carol Hamilton than force.

Over the course of her 40-year career at L’Oréal, she was a chief architect of the rise and rise of L’Oréal Paris, today the world’s largest beauty brand. She achieved record profitability for the Luxe division, forged tight connections with the founder community and oversaw the development of the company’s sprawling West Coast headquarters.

So no surprise that when she announced her “retirement” in May 2025, Hamilton didn’t kick back and relax. Instead, she got straight back to work, doubling down on her work to drive gender equality for women and girls in beauty and beyond.

“My priority after leaving L’Oréal was to establish my new life and my new portfolio of what I wanted to do,” said Hamilton, “and I didn’t want to slow down.”

Now, Hamilton focuses her energies on two main areas: social impact and beauty. In terms of the former, Hamilton became the founding anchor of UNICEF’s Power4Girls program and vice chair of UNICEF U.S., while also continuing to serve on Harvard’s Women Leadership Board for Gender Equality. Beauty-wise, she was recently appointed chair of CEW, and also serves on the boards of Pura, Kayali and Patrick Ta.

Beauty is notoriously fickle, but you had a 40-year career. What are the qualities that enabled you to always be on the pulse of what’s happening?

Carol Hamilton: Curiosity, traveling and reading a lot. My favorite place for developing ideas is a walk along the street, especially in cities. The world moves so fast. One reason I wanted to stay in beauty and be on these boards is I believe that if you aren’t keenly curious all of the time, in six months you’ll become irrelevant.

As we look at the corporate landscape, we are seeing women regress rather than progress when it comes to the chief executive officer role. Why do you think that is?

C.H.: That’s the biggest question that we have to answer to achieve gender equality in the corporate workplace. There are so few CEO roles, and there is a desire to make sure that women are more perfect than men. One mistake or one political error really can take you off a list, and it’s very hard to stay on the list for a long time because everybody is watching you. I think probably the biggest reason is the lack of true sponsorship throughout a career. Often the most deeply formed relationships are men to men. The men to women relationships don’t seem to have the sticking power or mechanism to create a deeper sponsorship that’s going to win a fight in a boardroom if it comes down to a candidate between a man and a woman.

What is your overall assessment of where we as women are in the business landscape?

C.H.: We’ve certainly come a long way, but I’m surprised at how far we have to go. Every time I see an appointment of a new male CEO, and I know there was a qualified woman there, it really makes me stop and think. How does that continue to happen, especially in companies that market predominately to women?

You served as chair of the Harvard Women’s Leadership Board. Do women need different skills than men to reach the corner office?

C.H.: We naturally network differently, we naturally negotiate differently and we naturally socialize differently. We also make decisions differently. There’s decision by consensus, which tends to be what women do, and that takes longer because you’re building a consensus with a lot of different people. It also depends on the company, but the cultural intersection between nationalities and norms enters into the issue of true gender equality, because it’s about how boys and girls are raised and what they’re taught, and that can be very different culturally.

At WWD’s Women in Power conference, one of the themes was the idea that perfection is the opposite of progress. Do we as women have a perfection complex?

C.H.: Yes, for sure. There is long-term evidence that women will not ask for promotion until they believe they’re overqualified, and men will ask for it if they’re only one-third prepared.

What do you advise ambitious women who want to climb high in a career?

C.H.: Reaching the CEO suite is not just about your quality of work and impact on the business. What makes it happen is a campaign where you ask for it. You’re very clear. What are the barriers? What do I need to do? Am I in the running? You find someone who is going to sponsor you and put you on a path with definite milestones that you have to achieve.

You’ve just become chairperson of CEW. What’s your goal?

C.H.: My goal is to reinforce and make progress on the bigger issue of gender equality in the workplace and in life. CEW was created as a safe place for women and to help women develop career skills. I’d like to go back to reinforcing that with our programs, awards and information.

What is it about beauty that keeps drawing you back?

C.H.: Beauty is beauty. I just love the visual world of beauty and the self-confidence that it gives to women. To me, it’s a fundamental right. But what truly keeps bringing me back are the people. I cherish the relationships that I have formed.