Taking action for gender equality

This International Women’s Day, I am celebrating my privileges.

?I have a fulfilling job with a company that amplifies diversity and champions an inclusive culture. I have a supportive husband and two thriving children. I have benefited from the richness of my Ghanaian heritage and the boundless opportunities that came from growing up in the United States.?All of these are enhanced by my greatest privilege of all. I am a woman.

However, I know this is not the story for many women who are marginalized because of their gender, gender identity, the color of their skin or the country or context in which they’ve been raised. We hear that’s life, right?

?I want to do all I can to ensure that for children growing up today, the answer to that question is a resounding NO!??

?Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow

Sadly, gender inequality is a global phenomenon. Women across the globe enjoy fewer opportunities in life than men, and it’s time to do something about it. If we want to create a more sustainable tomorrow – for business, for society and for the planet – we must focus on gender equality today!

Statistics tell us the real consequences of gender equality. For example, 60-70% of new graduates worldwide are women, and yet women currently represent only 40% of the global workforce. If we give young graduate women the same opportunities as their male counterparts and, therefore, drive greater gender-balanced teams in businesses, it improves performance of business and the economy.

In fact, according to management consultancy, McKinsey & Company, $12 trillion could be added to the global GDP by advancing on gender equality. And it’s not just business and the global economy that could benefit through women having access to equal opportunities; take a look at developing countries where women make up 43% of the agricultural workforce. According to the UN, if they had the same access to productive resources as men, women could increase yields on their farms to the extent of reducing the number of hungry people in the world by up to 17%.

Everyday actions to empower women

Achieving gender equality can create a more sustainable world and a better life for all. This is why, at Sodexo, we’re focusing on ensuring our everyday actions support the empowerment of women in our business and in our local communities; because we believe those actions can help to create a better everyday for everyone to build a better life for all.

But what does that really mean? Like many companies, Sodexo has bold commitments around gender equality. We have a global target for women to represent at least 40% of our leadership team by 2025 and for 100% of employees to be working in entities that have gender-balanced management teams. In addition, we are committed to empowering 500,000 women in our local communities by 2025.

We have clear actions to drive progress towards those goals, including programs dedicated to support the careers of women in our organization; HR processes to encourage gender diverse candidate slates for recruitment; training modules to raise awareness of unconscious bias; initiatives to support vulnerable women in our communities to move into employment; dedicated support for small to medium sized enterprises, specifically those owned and operated by under-represented groups (including women), through our supplier inclusion program; and our ongoing sponsorship of Stop Hunger, the global non-profit network working towards a hunger-free world through the empowerment of women.

Together, we can make a difference

These actions are driving progress, both within our business and in our local communities, and you can find out more about the impact of our actions on our global website .

However, we’re only part of the way along our journey; we have a long way to go to achieve gender equality.

As one of the largest employers in the world, Sodexo has the potential to make a difference to the lives of many through our everyday actions. But compound our efforts with the efforts of other global organizations, we can make a significant impact on a huge scale.

By focusing on gender equality today – and every day – we can build a more sustainable future. But it requires constant focus; it cannot be something we pay lip service to once a year when it’s International Women’s Day. It must be authentic; it must be woven into the fabric of our business strategy; it must be embedded in our culture. And it all starts with the everyday.

If we want to build a more sustainable tomorrow and a future in which all people thrive, we must work together to advance gender equality.