Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow

Today is International Women’s Day! This year’s motto “gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow” points at an element of gender equality that is often overlooked.?

The impacts of climate change are not gender neutral and affect women disproportionally. Women represent 70% of the world’s poor - the group most affected by the consequences of climate change because of the greater dependency on threatened natural resources. Specifically, on a global level, women have less access to land, education, and political participation. Because of this socio-economic and political marginalization, women are more vulnerable to the consequences of climate change.

At the same time, women are key when it comes to creating a sustainable future. One of many proof points is a study showing female representation in parliaments leads to the adoption of more stringent climate change policies, thus resulting in lower carbon dioxide emissions (Mavisakalyan & Tarverdi, 2019).?

No matter which perspective we take – there is overwhelming evidence that we need to accelerate our efforts on gender equality. SAP’s vision is to enable its customers to become intelligent and sustainable enterprises. We also have an unwavering and unconditional commitment to gender equality. If we needed yet another proof point - It’s impact on sustainability sheds light on the fact that gender equality is merely essential for all of us living on this planet.