Closing the Corporate Gender Gap
Ogilvy Washington for the Gender Equality Project
Launching a new methodology for gender equality certification.
Challenge:
While gender equality has been on the corporate agenda for years, progress hasn’t matched aspirations. At a global level, a 40 percent gap remains between women and men in terms of economic participation and opportunity. The Gender Equality Project was the first organization to develop a standardized methodology that multinational companies could use to tackle the corporate gender gap.
Insight:
Using research that proved the business case for gender parity, the Gender Equality Project built an innovative, standardized tool that enabled corporations to establish and evaluate their ranking. Early adopters proved the adaptability of the tool across industries and global regions.
PROGRAM:
Launched the global certification methodology at the World Economic Forum at Davos, leveraging GEP’s partnership with the Forum to frame gender equality practices as central to corporate competitiveness and profitability.
Engaged the early adopter CEOs (e.g., Pfizer, Ogilvy & Mather, Coca-Cola) to share their perspectives about gender equity as a corporate governance issue as well as the value of the new methodology to monitor progress.
Results:
The launch received significant media attention, including a feature in the International Herald Tribune, and helped position GEP leaders as experts. Since its launch, the Project has transitioned to Edge Certification, and continues to engage leading multinationals to use its methodology.