Morning Plenary, Trusteeship Council Chambers, UN Headquarters 6th Annual Women’s Empowerment Principles Event Gender Equality and the Global Jobs Challenge 5-6 March 2014 UN Headquar
Trang 1Morning Plenary, Trusteeship Council Chambers,
UN Headquarters
6th Annual Women’s Empowerment Principles Event
Gender Equality and the Global Jobs Challenge
5-6 March 2014
UN Headquarters, New York City
Overview
The 6th Annual Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) event, Gender Equality and the
Global Jobs Challenge, spotlighted business strategies, experience and challenges on increasing
and enhancing job opportunities for women and expanding access to decent jobs Hosted by
the WEPs, a partnership initiative of the UN Global Compact and UN Women, the event
brought together over 250 participants and hundreds more who joined via live webcast from a
wide range of sectors and geographical regions including leading stakeholders from business,
government and civil society, to strengthen local and global solutions The sessions confronted
some of the key barriers to enhancing and expanding women’s position in the workforce around the globe such as: facing conscious and unconscious bias; juggling multiple responsibilities of work and family;
overcoming barriers to higher and better paying positions; and nontraditional jobs and connecting to women suppliers and entrepreneurs The following report summarizes the main sessions and identifies key messages of the event
5 March - WEPs Conversation Series
The 5 March programme featured a series of WEPs conversations on resources, data, tools and
engagement opportunities to help all stakeholders advance women’s economic empowerment
Some of the key messages from the conversations series include:
While the business case for gender equality is evident, there is frustration on the slow pace
of change
To achieve parity, there needs to be transformative cultural change which specifically
targets entrenched unconscious and conscious biases
The sharing of resources, knowledge and success stories through strong partnerships is
essential to advancing the goals of the WEPs This knowledge sharing can lead to group
based entrepreneurship and additional opportunities for women’s economic
empowerment
Applying a gender lens to sustainability initiatives and commitments is vital to achieve
corporate sustainability goals and targets Women are not only impacted differently by
corruption, climate, violence, but their skills and expertise can be uniquely leveraged to
create innovative solutions to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges
The WEPs cover a wide range of topics and themes and provide an overarching framework
to help companies mainstream gender throughout their business and operations Engaging
with initiatives and partner organizations aligned with one or more of the Principles can
help WEPs companies meet their WEPs related goals and advance gender equality in the
workplace, marketplace and community
- WEPs Around the World
Programme on WEPs
Leadership's live blog
Coverage
- CEO Statement of Support for the WEPs
Investing in Women’s Employment
Women’s Economic Empowerment
Agenda: Women’s Empowerment & the Role
of Business
Unconscious Mind for Inclusive Behaviour & Gender Equality
Exhibition and Forum
Trang 2Steve Almond, Chairman, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
6 March - Gender Equality and the Global Jobs Challenge
The main event on 6 March, held at United Nations Headquarters, emphasized the importance of
increasing and enhancing jobs for women to reach development goals and business targets
Recognizing that development is directly linked to job creation, but that development does not in
itself eliminate inequalities, the high-level remarks and series of panels highlighted the
importance of addressing existing structural barriers within the workplace, marketplace and
community to achieve gender parity As the private sector is the driving force of job creation,
providing 90% of today’s jobs, it is vital for the private sector to take concrete steps to eliminate
these prevailing barriers in order to attain new levels of productivity and growth However, to
achieve transformative change there needs to be equal commitment to gender equality from
male counterparts, especially those in top leadership positions Key messages include:
Critical to have top level support that supports and advances gender equality, especially the
family and career balance
Development alone does not eliminate barriers for women to enter and progress within the
workforce It is essential to take targeted actions to address the reasons why women are not
progressing within organizations Reasons discussed were: workforce access, childcare, support networks, sponsorship and mentorship, unconscious bias
Train men and women to be inclusive leaders
Opportunity to utilize the skills and knowledge from a larger pool of talent in both hiring and sourcing practices
Afternoon Roundtable Sessions
The afternoon sessions fostered business-business learning and dialogue through
interactive discussions on the topics of: Work, Families and Gender Equality:
Stress and Solutions; Increasing Women in the Workforce: Opening the Doors and
Changing the Company Culture; and Expanding Women's Enterprise
Opportunities, Building Business and Social Value The discussions highlighted
concrete practices, programmes and initiatives companies are taking to address
these issues Some of the concrete steps companies are taking include:
Creating programmes that address the specific life stages of women
Keynote Remarks by Anne-Marie Slaughter
Further highlighting the existing structural barriers for women, Anne-Marie Slaughter, in her keynote remarks, underscored the importance of valuing caregiving and breadwinning equally She explained, in order to achieve gender equality, there must be an equal number of men in caregiving and lead parent roles, otherwise the expectations of women
to be successful at home and at work continue to be unrealistic Slaughter claimed, girls are raised with more choices than boys, so in order to shift the breadwinning and caregiving value system, boys need to see that any combination of breadwinning and caregiving is possible Slaughter concluded by stating there needs to be a change in vocabulary and thought process around the traditional roles for women and men in order
to crate space for new roles and behavior Watch speech here.
Anne-Marie Slaughter, President,
New America Foundation
Master of Ceremonies:
Mr Jo Confino (Executive Editor, Guardian; Chairman and Editorial Director, Guardian Sustainable Business)
High-level Remarks:
Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN Women), Mr Georg Kell (Executive Director, United Nations Global Compact), Mr Steve Almond (Chairman, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu), and Ms Barbara
Krumsiek (CEO, Calvert Investments)
Trang 3 Working with governments to develop legislation that support women within
the workforce
Showing the importance of diversity to advance innovation and maintain a
competitive talent edge
Providing early child development programmes for children of employees
Specifically training women for “non-traditional” jobs and teaching women to
showcase their accomplishments within these roles
Enhancing skills of entrepreneurs through capacity building programmes to
increase procurement opportunities
UN Global Compact, ITC and UN Women Partner to Better Support Women Entrepreneurs
Among other relationships that were fostered during the event, the UN Global Compact and UN Women signed agreements with the International Trade Centre (ITC) to join forces to create greater opportunities for women entrepreneurs from developing countries Among other things, the organizations will promote the Global Platform for Action on Sourcing from Women Vendors and the upcoming Women Vendors Exhibition and Forum taking place in Rwanda on 16-17 September 2014 Learn more
2014 WEPs Leadership Awards
The WEPs Leadership Awards salute business leaders for their exceptional championship of gender equality and support for the Women’s Empowerment Principles Held as part of the WEPs Annual Event, in observance of International Women’s Day (8 March) and coinciding with the Commission on the Status of Women, the awards ceremony highlights concrete and innovative actions taken to advance the 7 Principles and particularly Principle One: Leadership Promotes Gender Equality As advancing women in the workplace, marketplace and community requires implementing a range of tailored strategies and actions to achieve concrete, sustainable programmes with measurable impact, the WEPs Leadership Awards are structured to reflect diverse strategies To learn more about the WEPs Leadership Awards
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General & Executive Director, UN Women and Georg Kell, Executive Director, UN Global Compact
2014 WEPs Leadership Award Recipients:
• Benchmarking for Change: Cem Boyner, Chief Executive Officer, Boyner Holding
• Business Case for Action: Joseph Keefe, President and Chief Executive Officer,
Pax World Management
• Community Engagement: Muhtar Kent, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer,
The Coca Cola Company
• Cultural Change for Empowerment: T.K Kurien, Chief Executive Officer and Member of the
Board, Wipro Limited
• 7 Principles: Anant Gupta, President and Chief Executive Officer, HCL Technologies Joseph Keefe, Chief Executive
Officer, Pax World Fund
UN Women Executive Director Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka, ITC Executive Director Arancha González & UN
Global Compact Executive Director Georg Kell