At Unilever we believe business can play an important role in creating a fairer, better and more equal world. Women’s empowerment, and their inclusion in the economic cycle, has a magnifying positive impact on the growth of our economy and the progress of our society. Empowering women is not only the right thing to do but it also makes good business sense. In fact, over 70% of our consumers globally are female and we want to build an organisation that reflects and understands the needs of the people who buy our products.
Sharing her thoughts on progress, Elizabeth explained that the pace of change is not fast enough with issues such as the gender pay gap, domestic violence and a difference in retirement savings holding us back from achieving true equality. Elizabeth believes business must set gender balance targets and create an inclusive culture in order to achieve systemic change.
In addition, men in positions of influence, who are willing to step up beside women and tackle these issues are critical enablers of change. Elizabeth also shared how simple actions such as men and women making their caring responsibilities visible can help normalise flexible working in the workplace.
Clive highlighted the results we are seeing at Unilever through our efforts to create a diverse, inclusive and gender balanced business in Australia and New Zealand, including achieving pay parity, launching a domestic violence policy and declaring “all roles flexible” to help normalise and embed flexible working across all areas of our organisation. Clive also shared his commitment to put the same level of focus and scrutiny on our gender-balance agenda as we do with our business results as the next step in our journey towards achieving our Sustainable Living Plan ambitions.
Check out the full conversation in the video and hear more insights from both Elizabeth and Clive.