Business Practice

Companies Leading the Way

Empowering women and achieving gender equality – the goals of the Women’s Empowerment Principles - requires intentional actions and deliberate policies. The WEPs are based on concrete business practices and have inspired companies around the world to tailor existing policies and programmes – or establish needed new ones – to realize women’s empowerment.

What follows is a sampling of good practices gathered from online searches or submitted by UN Global Compact participants in response to our call to share actions and initiatives that their companies are undertaking to empower and advance women. Additional examples are available here.

The actions and policies adopted by these companies demonstrate the abundance of ways that business can contribute to the advancement of women’s empowerment around the world. The examples hail from companies representing a broad range of sectors and regions, demonstrating the universal relevance and practicality of women’s empowerment and gender equality. These working examples have not necessarily been reviewed by the companies concerned and may be subject to further editing. Nor have they been through any vetting process. They are intended to raise awareness of the many ways in which business can promote gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and community. We hope that they will inspire other businesses to take action to empower women and that this collection of good practices by companies around the world will continue to grow.

The launch of the Sustainable Development Goals in September 2015 provides a tremendous opportunity for business to scale up action to advance gender equality and address some of the world's greatest challenges.  The WEPs provide an established platform for companies to deepen and accelerate action. See what actions WEPs companies are taking to advance the SDGs. 

 


The Gender - Climate Nexus

 

In December, governments, civil society organizations, the UN and business will be coming together at COP21/CMP11 in Paris, France to decide on a global agreement on climate change. In the lead up to these historic climate negotiations, the WEPs Secretariat, in collaboration with the Caring for Climate initiative, the UN Global Compact, UNEP and UNFCCC secretariat’s initiative aimed at advancing the role of business on climate change, is exploring how business can develop gender inclusive climate resilient strategies, turning the climate challenge into inclusive market opportunities.

Below are some examples of what companies are already doing to make the connections between gender and climate change.  Please share what your company is doing to implement inclusive climate change strategies by emailing [email protected]

 

Itaipu Binacional | Developing the Leadership Pipeline

Itaipu Binacional, a global generator of renewable clean energy headquartered in Brazil and the Center for Excellence and Innovation in the Automobile Industry (CEiiA), based in Portugal, formed a partnership to develop new technological solutions to make cities more sustainable and mobile based on renewable sources. This programme, called MOB-I, seeks to advance women’s participation in the development of environmentally friendly technologies. From the beginning, the project ensured women comprised 50% of leadership roles and encouraged MOB-I suppliers to embed gender equality into their operations. The MOB-I partnership promotes internships and learning opportunities to encourage young women in local high schools and universities to enter the technology sector and innovate environmentally friendly solutions.  Since 2014, Itaipu and CEiiA have encouraged industrial partners of the MOB-I programme to also develop strategies and actions aimed at women’s inclusion in the technology sector.

Rio Tinto | Inclusive Community Consultations 

Rio Tinto, a multinational mining company, published the “Rio Tinto Gender Guide” offering guidance on integrating gender into the company’s community engagement efforts. The report highlights linkages between gender and the environment acknowledging mining’s actual and potential impacts on land use and quality, forest density, and water quality. In its publication, Rio Tinto states that “consideration should be given to how men might be affected differently from women should there be an environmental incident”. The company’s focus on inclusive engagement resulted in a more acute awareness of the environmental impacts on both men and women.  This type of assessment was shown to be a successful during a Mongolian project. Following the initial community consultation process, the company’s Community Relations Officer organized a women’s meeting where concerns over the environment were communicated. Specifically, women of the village raised concerns about impacts on land rehabilitation and quality, and the potential risk of exotic plants being introduced. These issues related directly to the women’s central role in dairy and milk production, and their livelihood. By including women in the consultation process, Rio Tinto was able to better understand the environmental importance of the land and decrease environmental impacts. Rio Tinto was also able to better map the land as women had a deeper knowledge of the pasture lands and seasonal fluctuations. 

Enel | Women as Solar Technicians 

Recognizing the need for inclusive sustainable energy solutions in rural Latin America, Enel, an Italian electricity company, partnered with Barefoot College Program to empower semi-illiterate women from electricity deprived villages to install and maintain small photovoltaic systems.  This partnership develops the capacities of women entrepreneurs, specifically grandmothers, by providing them with technical training to install and maintain solar panels. After completing a six month course in northern India, the women return to their rural communities where they become solar technicians.  To expand the impact of the initiative, the women are also trained to host electronic workshops for their local communities. The photovoltaic kits made available by Enel Green Power, not only strengthened the capacity of women entrepreneurs, but brought sustainable energy sources to rural communities. The programme was expanded in 2015 to Kenya and Tanzania where women are learning how to become solar engineers as well as redesigning off- grid solutions for fishery farms to become mainly reliant on renewable energy sources. This partnership exemplifies the benefits of gender mainstreaming in public-private to advance sustainable development and women’s empowerment.  

Kellogg Company | Empowering Women Smallholders in Value Chains

Kellogg Company, a global food producer, has partnered with CARE, a non-governmental humanitarian and development organization, to empower women smallholder farmers from poor and marginalized communities who rely on increasingly variable rainfall in the Indian State of Odisha. The programme includes training to women smallholder farmers, who have faced two consecutive years of erratic rainfall, in sustainable agricultural practices to enhance their capacities to adapt to and cope with climate change. The programme also works to enhance women’s participation in the maize value chain and increase their social standing, incomes and savings. Women’s collectives are formed to build their social capital and visibility, and to improve their access to agricultural inputs, services and schematic benefits. The initiative also attempts to increase women’s productive and equitable engagement with men within households and in the community, and works to strengthen women smallholder farmers’ linkages with market actors, thus helping to improve equity in societal relationships. Strong gendered analysis, which is inclusive of the various components of the maize value chain, guide the design and implementation of the initiative. Outcomes and impact will be measured through a customized Women Empowerment Index in the Maize Value Chain which will track five domains of empowerment, i.e., production, resources, income, autonomy/time and leadership. Further, a Coping Strategy Index will be used to assess improvements in coping mechanisms accessible to and deployed by women to pursue resilient livelihoods. This initiative is aligned with Kellogg Company’s Global Sustainability 2020 commitments supporting sustainable agriculture and women smallholder farmers. 

Schneider Electric Brazil | Creating Opportunities for Women in the Energy Market 

Schneider Electric, a multinational energy company headquartered in France, came to the conclusion that women need to be part of its expansion strategy and fight against climate change in South America. With the goal of closing the access to energy gap of 1.1 billion people worldwide, Schneider Electric created global energy focused vocational training program, which reached more than 30 thousand people in South America.  Recognizing that women drive much of the consumption in the villages (due to household tasks) and knowing the energy sector is a male dominated industry, Schneider Electric is learning to tailor the training programmes specifically to develop women energy entrepreneurs that are well equipped to help address climate change issues in their community. At first these training programmes did not attract many women; however Schneider changed their strategy to target women both in rural zones and in the cities, who women were already working as domestic helpers or household cleaners, showing that they could also market themselves to their employers as clean energy electricians.  The program aims to create a network using Schneider points of sales to encourage a big portion of these women to open their own electrical repair services. In addition these women are transferring the knowledge to their children, teaching them how to conserve solar light for longer term use.

 

WEPs Companies Committed to Taking Concrete Actions to Advance Gender Equality and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 

 

In the lead up to the launch of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, leaders from around the world made commitments to contribute to the economic empowerment of women and girls and help advance the 17 Global Goals. The below WEPs companies have communicated their commitments. Have your company showcase the concrete actions it is committed to taking to advance gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and community. To submit an example, please contact [email protected].
 
 

Accor Hotels

  • Reach gender parity in management and equal pay through employing 35% women hotel managers and reducing the pay gap between men and women at the Paris head office and in three other countries
  • Sensitize and motivate male employees in favor of gender diversity, including with a 35% male membership of their internal network Women At AccorHotels Generation and involving 50,000 male employees as HeForShe champions
 

ANZ Bank (Lao) Ltd.

  • Measure and report on women in leadership roles
  • Require men and women to be on interview panels
  • Roll out parental leave that gives fathers and parents of adopted children the same amount of leave as mothers (provided they are the primary caregiver)
  • Roll out healthcare benefits to cover same sex partners
  • Aim for minimum 40% of female vendor representation on their vendor panel by 2017 (all tenders now go out to a balance of men and women owned businesses)
  • Ensure guest list is at least 40% female for exclusive customer events
 
Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) 
  • Provide companies with effective resources and tools to increase the impact of their women's empowerment initiatives, including launching a new collaborative platform to enable effective collaborative action
  • Empower low-income women working in global supply chains through HERproject which provides workplace health and finance training
  • Partner with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and leading global buyers to promote financial inclusion through the digitization of wage payments and expansion of financial education in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan over the next four years
 

Gap Inc. 

  • ​Educate one million women across the world through the Gap Inc. P.A.C.E. (Personal Advance & Career Enhancement which includes classes on communication skills, financial literacy, problem solving, health and wellness) program by 2020
 
Hogan Lovells
  • Support the growth of women-led businesses and social enterprises by providing free legal advice and skills based volunteering through many of their partnerships including, CARE International's Lendwithcare project, Ashoka and UnLtd
  • Train their lawyers, through the global HL BaSE program, to help them understand the importance of social impact in today’s world, encourage them to open discussions with social entrepreneurs at the start of their careers, and contribute to an enabling environment that sees women and women-led businesses thrive and create social impact
  • Advocate for women's empowerment at local, national and global levels by both deepening and broadening their relationship with CARE International, drawing upon CARE International’s expertise and Hogal Lovells skills and resources

 


 

Good practices:

Companies advancing women's empowerment and gender equality

 

Agbar

Agbar, a Spanish public services holding company has committed to helping victims of domestic violence by signing an agreement with the Catalan Parliament to facilitate job placement of women victims.

In November 2008, Agbar and the Ministry of Employment of the Government of Catalonia signed an agreement to hire women who had suffered gender-based violence. Each of the nine companies who signed the agreement, which is in its first pilot phase, with the Government of Catalonia Ministry of Employment are committed to hire at least three women who had suffered gender-based violence. In order to carry this out, each company defined the professional profiles of the positions to be filled as well as the training needs of the people who would have to fill them. Based on this information, the Government selected the most suitable candidates and trained them.

Agbar hired three women after signing the contract and today two of them are still on the permanent staff. During the women’s employment at Agbar, Human Resources tracks the progress and safety of the person through phone conversations and visits to the work centre. For reasons of confidentiality, only the HR Manager, the Head of Selection and the head of the area in which the person works are aware of the circumstances. This way, greater sensitivity can be shown when it comes to matters regarding work tasks or, in particular, the balance of work and home life. If the department head has any doubt or query, he or she directly contacts the Head of Selection on how to proceed.

 

Allens

Allens, is a leading international law firm with partners, lawyers and corporate services staff across Asia and Australia, and a global network spanning 40 offices and 29 countries. Since 2002, its professional development programs have included programs specifically focused on the engagement, career and professional development and promotion of women in the firm. In 2009, Allens reinvigorated and extended its professional and career development programs for women.

Building on an existing mentoring program, the firm introduced a structured twelve-month external mentoring program to help support and accelerate the development of its outstanding female professionals.  Selection is based on objective criteria and mentees and mentors are matched through an independent external provider. Although not limited, the primary role of the mentor is to offer support, strategic advice and inspiration. Since 2009, 17 women have taken part in the program and have reported an "increase in confidence, courage, skills and networks to manage a range of professional and personal challenges". Of those participants, eight have been promoted to partnership or senior management.

 

Banco do Brasil

Banco do Brasil, a leading Brazilian bank, has put a number of initiatives in place to promote employees with parental demands.

Maternity leave: Banco do Brasil was the first financial institution in Brazil to allow women employees six months maternity leave on full pay, which is also available if adopting children under eight years old. Women are entitled to return to the same job they were doing before leave, in order to avoid adverse effects on their career advancement. In 2011 alone, 1,680 female employees benefited from this extended leave.

Family life: Banco do Brasil offers a number of other benefits for both women and men to reconcile home and professional life as they start a family and care for children. Some of the key benefits are: food vouchers, paternity or adoption leave, financial reimbursement of expenses for day care center, preschool institutions, domestic help or nanny for parents with children (under 7), assistance for parents with disabled children (over age 7), family-member sick leave and doctors appointments (paid 70% of salary for up to 90 days for cases of illness affecting family members) and marriage leave (8 days).

 

BBVA

BBVA, is a financial services company in Spain.

Maternity initiatives, which are one of the three pillars of BBVA's Global Diversity Plan, are aimed at preventing this situation from hindering the professional development of women. Specific measures have been implemented to achieve this goal. In a first stage, maternity leave is covered by a person with similar qualifications in order to prevent women from feeling any type of pressure or guilt due to their pregnancy. Women leave knowing that their colleagues will not be overloaded by their work, and that BBVA guarantees them their same job after finishing their maternity leave. When she returns to work, support is provided for a few weeks by a personal tutor, who may be her own boss. The tutor’s aim is to make the return easier, explaining news and changes that may have happened in the work place in their absence, and guiding her through them. In addition, after a period of approximately one year, a follow-up interview is conducted with the mother in order to obtain an in-depth knowledge of her experience and detect possible areas for improvement. Work circumstances are analyzed and professional development is verified in order to assess if there is brake after maternity. The ultimate goal is to maintain professional development and the recognition of employees’ talent, regardless of the maternity leave.

BBVA is pleased to have achieved in 2012 a ten percentage point increase at the global level in the number of maternity leaves in relation to 2011. Of the women 2,273 that went on maternity leave in 2012, 100% came back to their same jobs.

 

Calvert Investments

Calvert Investments, a leading U.S. investment firm, launched the Calvert Women’s Principles™ in 2004, as the first global code of corporate conduct focused exclusively on empowering, advancing and investing in women.

The Women’s Principles, consistent with Calvert’s longstanding investment approach, hold that well-governed, socially responsible companies are better positioned to manage risk and deliver long-term value to their shareholders, and reflect the view that there is a strong business case for gender equality. Since their launch, the Principles have offered corporations a set of standards against which they can assess their performance and provided investors with a set of tools to assess corporate progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Calvert’s main focus has been on turning the Principles from the aspirational into the operational.

In 2008, Calvert partnered with the City of San Francisco’s Department on the Status of Women and Verité to adapt the Principles for the Bay area. As part of the partnership, the company launched the Gender Equality Principles (GEP) and a companion website (www.genderprinciples.org). This resource serves as a one-stop shop to assist companies in implementing and promoting the GEP, by allowing them to establish a baseline, identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement, leverage extensive indicators and resources, and set concrete goals and objectives to strengthen gender-related policies, practices, and organizational culture.

 

The Chemical Industries Development (CID)

The Chemical Industries Development (CID) is a leading Egyptian company in the production of the pharmaceutical products. As part of its commitment to promoting gender equality within the company, CID formed a Gender Equity Committee. The Committee, which is composed by CID’s senior managers, has in depth meetings with the assistant technical team to raise awareness about the Gender Equality principles and GEME (Gender Equality Model in Egypt), and to assess gender equality impact on the company. To assess impact the commit conducts a self-assessment questionnaire, develops a training needs assessment and leads trainings and workshops. The committee established several indicators to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the company’s gender equity policies. If the evaluation process uncovers areas for improvement, the committee documents and looks for potential changes to strengthen the G.E. model.

In addition to the Gender Equity Committee, CID created a human resources Subcommittee which addresses gender specific recruitment, complaints, training, promotion and evaluation performance. In addition, the Subcommittee collects sex-disaggregated data so that participation of men and women within the firm can be sufficiently analyzed by the committee (see a list of data collected below). All Members of the Committee and Subcommittee are well trained and qualified to undertake their responsibilities as internal auditors of gender equity in the firm and operate under the leadership of a gender equity coordinator and supervised by the CEO. The committees publish their results in the company magazine and in a G.E. manual.

(Data collected: Percentage of male and female employees (as share of total employment); The percent of men and women participating at each level and position; Analysis of the number of personnel who have left the firm and the reasons for leaving; Level of absenteeism for men and women; Number of trainees at each level (Male/Female); Female/Male representation in traveling chances, professional meetings, conferences; Female and male managers have equal opportunities for management training; Men’s and women’s participation in training programs are equal (according to specialization and training needs.)

 

5by20 - Coca-Cola

5by20 is The Coca-Cola Company' global initiative to enable the economic empowerment of 5 million women entrepreneurs across our value chain by 2020. The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s largest beverage company with more than 500 sparkling and still brands available in more than 200 countries worldwide. Through 5by20, women entrepreneurs around the world – from fruit farmers to retailers to artisans – business skills training courses, access to financial services and access to support networks of peers or mentors to address the barriers they face to business success.

The Coca-Cola Company works with partners around the world to bring 5by20 to life, encouraging innovation, scale-up and replication. For example, UN Women and Coca-Cola work together to leverage UN Women’s reach and influence as a leader in promoting gender equality and economic empowerment in the context of Coca-Cola’s broad global value chain and extensive business expertise. Their $4 million partnership will reach more than 40,000 women in Egypt, Brazil and South Africa over the next three years and will provide valuable insights on sustainable project models that can be scaled up worldwide. By the end of 2012, 5by20 reached 300,000 women total since its launch in 2010. There are 5by20 programs in 12 countries: Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Haiti, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, South Africa and Thailand. In the years ahead, Coca-Cola expects to reach every region of the globe as 5by20 grows exponentially.

Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee

Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee - a North American Coffee company, initiated CHICA Comunidad de Hermanas Inteligentes con Corazones Abiertos (Community of Intelligent Sisters with Open Hearts), a community based program in Guatemala.  The program aims to raise self-esteem, gender awareness and create educational and economic opportunities for indigenous teenaged girls in rural Guatemalan coffee villages.

To overcome the cultural barriers to women and girls advancement, CHICA identifies the impediments to self-esteem, uses group peer models to increase self-esteem and ready the girls to go back to school, create educational funds and economic opportunities for the girls to fund their future education and to assist the girls in becoming peer educators, advocates and community leaders. Then, as the girls "graduate" from both the program and their schooling, the program seeks to empower the young women to identify other impediments to their personal and professional growth, advocate for improvements and develop their own programs to address the issues.

The first round of graduating CHICAs identified Reproductive Health as a major impediment to the quality of their lives and their abilities to move forward in the economy and to have a sense of control over their futures. Of the first forty girls who participated in the self-esteem and education aspects of the project, all of whom had left school after the sixth grade, all reentered school and all but two have graduated high school. Half are now in university or college programs. Of those first forty girls all but two have put off their first pregnancy from the average age of fourteen to at least eighteen and only three have gotten pregnant to date. The new training modules on Reproductive Health are taking place right now in the villages and are reported to be popular and successful.

 

KPMG International

KPMG International, a global consulting firm, together with KPMG in the Netherlands hosts and sponsors a ‘Women in Leadership Program’ in cooperation with Women’s World Banking. Women leaders of microfinance institutions across the world are supported in understanding their unique leadership style and building key leadership capabilities including strategic thinking, making good decisions, and creating and nurturing challenging and supportive relationships. During the six day conference programme on site at a KPMG office, the women leaders of microfinance institutions are linked to mentors who are senior women of KPMG and/or KPMG business relations. With ongoing remote support and mentoring, participants develop a vision for their leadership and create an action plan to achieve this vision in which they are supported by their mentor over the subsequent year. Over the past two years we have provided leadership training to over 40 female leaders from the microfinance sector and related organizations in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. This has provided opportunities for over 30 KPMG senior women, besides enhancing their mentoring skills, to interact globally and gain exposure to new industries, cultures and ways of working.

The second leadership programme in 2012, which was hosted in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, witnessed, for the first time the participation of five business relations of KPMG as a mentor. The programme, brought together 21 women in management and leadership roles from 19 microfinance institutions in 11 countries in Sub Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Daily reflection sessions and a final programme evaluation form were used to assess participant satisfaction with various elements of the programme delivery. The overall programme score was 4.7 out of a possible score of 5. Women’s World Banking also conducted a follow-up survey for mentors and mentees in December-January 2013 in order to assess the progress and quality of the mentoring relationships to date. It is clear in the feedback from both mentors and mentees that there is great potential for achieving impact through the workshop and ongoing mentoring relationships.

 

MAS Holdings

MAS Holdings, a Sri Lankan based company founded in 1986, specializes in the production of intimate apparel and sportswear goods and provides services to such companies as Nike, Gap, and Victoria’s Secret.

In 2003, the company initiated the “Go Beyond Program” in apparel plants in Sri Lanka. The program, targeted at women, provides career development, life skills education and recognition for female garment workers. Prior to the initiative, MAS plants provided meals, banking services, skills building classes and transportation to their garment workers in Sri Lanka; however, the extent and funding of each program was at each plant manager’s discretion. With the “Go Beyond Program”, MAS Holdings established a company- wide framework to standardize and evaluate employee programs at each individual plant based on internally identified best practices. The program identified a four-point framework of empowerment and development based on career advancement, work-life balance, rewarding excellence and community activation. Specific classes included: awareness on domestic violence, stress management, balancing multiple roles of a woman, dressmaking, financial management and computer literacy. During the initial roll-out of the program and based on an impact measurement framework that was developed in July 2004, MAS Holdings’ plants implemented 290 programs in the four thematic areas and reached the average worker 3.7 times in the first year. Since its rollout, the program has been extended to India and Vietnam.

 

Merck

Merck, the second largest global healthcare company in the world, has a deep and longstanding commitment to the advancement of women in the workplace, marketplace and community.

Merck Women’s Leadership Summit 2011: Merck Women’s Network (MWN) and Global Diversity and Inclusion hosted more than 200 female leaders in Munich during March for the second annual Merck/MSD Women's Leadership Summit. Offering a variety of mentoring sessions, executive panels, networking events and workshops, the Merck Women’s Leadership Summit set its sights squarely on ways to retain top women and direct their focus to the future. The Summit was an opportunity for these women to network, learn from each other and develop new strategies and skills to be effective and successful leaders at Merck/MSD. Several Merck senior executive leaders, including Willie Deese, president of Merck Manufacturing Division (MMD), Bruno Strigini, president, Europe/Canada, and Joe Morrissey, senior vice president, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Canada (EMEAC) Operations, MMD were in attendance.

 

Nestle

Nestle, a multinational food and beverage company has committed its efforts to promoting and supporting the lives of women in its cocoa supply chain. In India and Pakistan, they employ veterinarians and agronomists to supervise milk routes and provide female dairy farmers with advice on various issues, irrespective of whether or not they are Nestlé suppliers. There is no charge for veterinary services, while medicines are provided at wholesale cost. The costs are adjusted against subsequent milk payments to the farmers, making the medicines affordable. Nestle also supports female farmers in expanding their operations, for example by assisting with artificial insemination programmes for cattle, subsidising the purchase of milking machines and helping them to procure loans.

 

Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk, a global healthcare company headquartered in Denmark, provides life-saving treatments for people with diabetes and rare bleeding disorders. Half of its employees (currently over 32,000) are women. To advance women internally, Novo Nordisk embeds gender diversity into key corporate organizational assurance and accountability processes. For example, annual internal organizational audits require that each business unit rigorously review diversity as one of many key organizational growth drivers, and link business and gender diversity in succession planning. The Balance Score Card promotes, with a common set of measurable gender indicators, accountability and ownership of gender diversity results at the business unit and executive levels. Furthermore, progress towards equal opportunity and inclusion in the workplace is regularly assessed through in-depth interviews with approximately 20% of staff annually.

 

Pax World Investments

Pax World Investments is a leading sustainable investment firm based in the United States that believes that women’s empowerment is good for companies and investors. As investors, they focus on influencing corporate policies and behavior so that companies can enjoy the benefits of gender diversity, including improved decision-making, oversight and performance. Pax World votes against all-male slates of directors at company annual meetings and against male nominees on slates with only one woman. They also file shareholder proposals asking companies to make diversity part of every director search.  Pax World launched the Pax Global Women’s Leadership Index and Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund based on the Index, investing in companies that invest in women. This year (2016), they expanded their gender engagement to include pay equity initiatives. They have filed three shareholder proposals, at Apple, eBay and Amazon, asking companies to disclose pay ratios by gender and report on programs aimed at eliminating gender pay gaps. Pax World also recently wrote to 31 technology companies held across its mutual funds, asking for information about how the companies are addressing pay equity and that they publicly disclose the results of a company pay analysis. In February 2016, Pax Ellevate, a partnership of Pax World and Ellevate Asset Management, submitted a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission urging the agency to either require companies to disclose pay equity data, or to issue guidance for the voluntary disclosure of such information. Pax World releases a pay equity audit annually in its own CSR report.

 

Symantec

Symantec, a United States software company, implemented the Gender Equity Image Project to promote gender equality within the company. The goal of the program is to work toward the ongoing improvement of gender representation and the reduction of the use of stereotyping imagery at Symantec wherever possible. The project strives to ensure ethical marketing standards by respecting the dignity of women in all sales, promotional, and advertising materials. In 2012 the Corporate Marketing team conducted a benchmark audit to evaluate how gender is represented through imagery at Symantec. We were reviewing for not only presence of gender based imagery but also gender split and position of power. We discovered that overall Symantec relies heavily on the use of non-gender logo based imagery, however, where gender based imagery exists, we have an opportunity to improve.

One of the pieces of the improvement plan was to initiate an annual audit of gender representation in various forms of our marketing communications. This audit uses an Excel spreadsheet to track a range of image categories and their gender statistics (male only, female only, mix of gender, position of power).

Further, in order to promote the Gender Equity Image Project; Symantec has added language to both our Corporate Editorial Style Guide and our Visual Guidelines to educate our marketing and sales organization as well as the agencies we work with to embrace all aspects of diversity, including gender.

The Symantec Gender Equity Image Project uses straightforward and easy-to-understand metrics. Several members of the marketing team evaluated over 300 images across several categories in an effort to understand how gender is represented in Symantec imagery. The initial results were presented to all of the teams with various control areas. Each team committed to a 5 percent improvement in the overall representation of gender in the first year, based on the results of the annual audit.