Inclusive Storytelling and Gender Equity (Part 3)

In the next installment of my series that explores how CMOs are committed to building more inclusive brands, I’d like to spotlight the second theme: Education + Training.

As a refresher: inclusive storytelling was the focus of this recent CMO series. At in-person events in Dubai, Dublin, London, New York, and San Francisco—as well as one virtual event—I asked the 39 panelists: “What is your organization’s commitment (or personal commitment) to forging greater gender equity, and how will you measure progress?”

The education-and-training-themed commitments were two-pronged. While some committed to doubling down on DEI-specific education for all employees, others provided skills-based training and programs to equip women with expertise and knowledge for traditionally male-dominated roles. When informing consumers about DEI programs, CMOs shared stories of women's successes, and some carried out missions to advocate for pay equity while others focused on financial literacy in the community. The process of upskilling women took the shape of hiring women bus drivers in a city where that career is typically occupied by men or establishing call centers in regions where there was a dearth of women in the workforce. Equipping people with knowledge—in the form of education or training—is one of the most effective methods of cultivating more relevant, inclusive brands, both inside and out.

As you read, I encourage you to consider your own commitment to forging inclusive brands and post in the comments section below ?? When you, as a brand leader, commit to telling inclusive stories, the brand expands from presenting its existence to revealing its reason for being.

(To read all three themes, download the complete report HERE.)

To hear all six conversations, listen to the How CMOs Commit podcast on?Spotify?or?Apple.

Note: Panelists’ quotes have been edited for clarity and brevity.

“From an SRMG point of view, as a business, we’re only successful if we’re empowering the next generation of young leaders. So, in late 2022, we launched the SRMG Academy, a training academy to empower young people with the media skills they need to thrive. Since we launched, we’ve done several training courses, and the presence of women applying and being in those courses is immense. Training the next generation and encouraging women to be a part of it is absolutely key.”

—Katie Purcer Golding, CMO, Saudi Research and Media Group (SRMG)

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“The most important thing before any commitment is that we need leadership to believe in it and to openly and visibly commit to equity. At JLL, we are introducing many initiatives that support equity, such as female leadership programs that empower women to succeed. In the real estate industry, we have a long way to go. But at JLL, we are on track to change that. There’s a lot of action to be done, and I am quite excited to be part of that journey—and part of the action-driving, not only the talking.”

—Anood Haddad, Head of Marketing + Public Relations, MEA + Turkey, JLL MENA

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“Today, I proudly say that more than 50% of the corporate head office is female. And one example of our commitment to equity in our work is with the city of Al Ain. It has a very high number of female Emiratis that are ready to go into the workforce. However, they don’t have enough job opportunities in Al Ain. So, we created a remote call center of over 100 Emirati females. We didn’t only meet our 8% goal of female employees—we hit a 10% target. And the conversion from a call to a sale has increased by almost 50%, ever since we started the call center. The numbers speak for themselves.”

—Marwa Kaabour, Group Head of Marketing and Corporate Communication, Al Masaood

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“We have brought on a senior leadership team that is fully balanced. We have committed to addressing the gender balance from the technical and operational side of our business. Throughout our company, we’ve committed to working together, per our numbers, per our scale of the group, to bring more females and different ethnicities into the group in the hopes of representing all parts of the community in our workforce. We’re particularly proud of the progress that has been made in terms of female bus drivers and apprentices, but we also have over 80 different nationalities within our operating companies. Our commitment is to support females through their career and talent development.”

—Caoimhe Donnelly, Chief Sustainability Officer, CIé Group

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“The Royal Commission of AIUIa has a bold and ambitious agenda. We want to respect our amazing heritage, and we want our people—our locals—to be at the forefront of the tourism experience. One example is our work at Madrasat Addeera, the former girls’ school, to upskill women with some of the dying handicrafts and arts from yesteryear. These women have acquired a profession, and they have a future to look forward to. There’s much to be done in the space of education and training, but, for us, it’s all about equal opportunity and absolutely seeing women come to the forefront.”

—Melanie de Souza, Executive Director Destination Marketing, The Royal Commission for AIUIa

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“At DarGlobal, we encourage female empowerment on different fronts, be it internal or external activities. In terms of internal activities, we encourage the women who work with us at DarGlobal to be able to speak up, through the opportunity to take learning seminars and attend conferences, so that they could be an example for their other colleagues to be able to explain to them the gender biases of today. And we maintain 60% female staff across all markets, which we pride ourselves on. DarGlobal is committed to ensuring that we have a strong understanding of the female equity, so that we can shape a narrative and make sure that we include females in everything that we do.”

—Lea Halwani, Head of Marketing, DarGlobal Real Estate

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“Our senior managers are compensated on female representation. We are increasing dramatically our board representation. We have education programs for all our senior leaders, in which they learn about unconscious bias and gender equality. We have an ERG for women with over 400 members—both men and women—and that’s been an incredible support network for everybody.”

—Colin Westcott-Pitt, Global Chief Brand Officer, Glanbia Performance Nutrition (GPN)

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“Creativity is the lifeblood of the brand. From a commitment point of view, this is our fourth year to sponsor and partner with a program called Creative Equals, which enables, assists, and coaches female creatives who’ve been out of the creative industry for whatever reason—career break, family leave, etc.—or who are just struggling to find opportunities in the creative industry. In terms of measurement, we’ve put 160 people through that program so far. And, of that, 85% have secured not just good employment, but amazing employment. We also commit to getting to gender equality within brewing. We’re not yet to 50%, but 30% of our brewers are female.”

—Stephen O’Kelly, Global Brand Director, Diageo (Guinness)

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“It’s not just about attracting women into top roles—it's also about retaining. It’s important to create an environment where women want to stay and want to work. So, Ericsson has created training programs that bring women together and empower them. One of the things I’ve found when I talk to these groups is that it’s important to be honest, because it is hard to manage a job and a family and all of the commitments that you have. As we encourage women, let’s be honest about some of the commitments you need to make.”

—Stella Medlicott, SVP/CMO + Head of Corporate Relations, Ericsson

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“There’s a tremendous number of programs under the umbrella brand of what we’re calling ‘Accelerate 2025’ that talk about how we get people to KPMG, how we help them succeed at KPMG, and how we have them lead at KPMG. One program we do around DE&I teaches people how to be psychologically safe, which is an underappreciated aspect of equity on a day-to-day basis. So, KPMG has had a program for training all employees around psychological safety, and it has made a huge difference.”

—Lauren Boyman, CMO, KPMG

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“After the murder of George Floyd, we found this powerful piece of information: in America, Black women start more businesses than anybody else. We created a program called “100 for 100,” in which we chose 100 Black-women-owned businesses—a diverse group of businesses in various fields from all over the country. And we didn’t just give them money. We also gave them networking, business education, and support to help them become not just successful—because they’re already doing that—but to be great customers of ours. American Express will continue to invest in programs like that.”

—Clayton Ruebensaal, EVP, Global B2B Marketing, American Express

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“One of the key pathways to equity is to equip all groups with a base level of capabilities and skills that will enable them to reach high levels of achievement. At Northwestern Mutual, we look at some of the competencies we need to double down to give extra training. I also think about budgets and how they’re being deployed. I’m thinking very deliberately about multicultural marketing and equity in my programs. I’m always trying to think in a systematic way about how I bring more impact with the resources I have.”

—Lynn Teo, CMO, Northwestern Mutual

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“Education affords opportunity, but education does not have to be the traditional format. Google has an amazing program called “Grow with Google.” Through this certification program, there’s the opportunity for lives to be transformed—for women to take on roles in tech. 75% of program graduates report an improvement in their career trajectory, and they can connect with top employers. For me, the commitment to economic empowerment is so critical that I feel personally, but I’m also super excited to see all these different types of people who have traditionally been at the outskirts be brought into the center and become part of the tech world.”

—Enshalla Anderson, Director, Global Head of Brand + Creative, Google Cloud

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“At AARP, there are multiple layers to our commitments. We have a commitment to financial education and to empowering women to make good financial decisions. We also have to fight for pay-equity issues and against discrimination that allows pay inequity to go on in the workforce. Our advocacy, education, and empowerment work,is foundational to our social mission. You can expect to see more from AARP in this area of gender equity and financial education and in helping women—and men—live their best, most secure lives over the age of 50.”

—Martha Boudreau, Chief Communications + Marketing Officer, AARP

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“Cignpost’s commitment is not about an initiative—it's about our existence. Preventative diagnostics for people in the workplace promote?equality because everybody should be valued as somebody who can bring something to the business, help it grow, and be part of a Team—with a capital ‘T.’ We should all be treated in exactly the same way, with the recognition of what our differences are and how we can embrace them. And, in our business, it’s about how you can continue to embrace them by ensuring that you live a long, happy, healthy life to achieve your ultimate goals—whoever you are.”

—Abigail Comber, CMO, Cignpost Diagnostics

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“Sport has the power to impact and change lives, whether it’s to entertain, inform, or inspire people around the globe. My commitment is to continue to grow our game, the league, and the awareness of our players and teams. The way we measure growth is in three areas. This first is how we’ll elevate and grow our brand. The second is how we’ll engage our core fans and attract new fans, including increasing consumption, ratings, and engagement across all of our different channels. And the third area is how we monetize, relating to, for example, sponsorships, licensing properties, and ticketing.”

—Julie Haddon, CMO, National Women’s Soccer League

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“At a personal and company level, it starts with challenging gender-normative assumptions. And people often think that you have to be in a certain position in order to be empowered to do that, but irrespective of your role, you need to defy those norms. I commit to challenging these assumptions because women are actively taking themselves out of the ‘race’ because they don’t feel like they have the support system to allow them to excel at the most senior levels, despite all the progress we’ve made.”

—Samantha Wu, CMO, Braintrust

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“Our commitment at Girl Scouts of the USA is to make sure that we are sharing publicly and with everybody the amazing things that our girls are doing today, so that we can scale the ways in which we show that girls are not waiting to lead tomorrow—they are already leading today. These girls have earned and deserve our respect. We want to make sure that those stories of impact and innovation are reaching a broader narrative through word of mouth, social media, and both national and local press.”

—Dana Siegel, VP, Brand + Product Marketing, Girl Scouts of the USA