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 Morning Plenary, Trusteeship Council Chambers, UN Headquarters - Watch Webcast - View Photos - Press Release - WEPs Around the World - Business in Society Programme on WEPs - Guardian Women in Leadership's live blog - Summary of Media Coverage - Sponsors - CEO Statement of Support for the WEPs March - WEPs Conversation Series The 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 - The Business Case for Investing in Women’s Employment - Knowledge Gateway for Women’s Economic Empowerment - Post-2015 Development Agenda: Women’s Empowerment & the Role of Business - Nudging the Unconscious Mind for Inclusive Behaviour & Gender Equality - Women Vendors Exhibition and Forum March - Gender Equality and the Global Jobs Challenge The main event on 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 Steve Almond, Chairman, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu 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 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) Keynote Remarks by Anne-Marie Slaughter Anne-Marie Slaughter, President, New America Foundation 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 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 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 Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-SecretaryGeneral & Executive Director, UN Women and Georg Kell, Executive Director, UN Global Compact UN Global Compact, ITC and UN Women Partner to Better Support Women Entrepreneurs UN Women Executive Director Phumzile MlamboNgcuka, ITC Executive Director Arancha González & UN Global Compact Executive Director Georg Kell 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 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 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 • Principles: Anant Gupta, President and Chief Executive Officer, HCL Technologies Joseph Keefe, Chief Executive Officer, Pax World Fund ... 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... programmes with measurable impact, the WEPs Leadership Awards are structured to reflect diverse strategies To learn more about the WEPs Leadership Awards 2014 WEPs Leadership Award Recipients: •... 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