Press Release: Why solidarity and allyship matter: UN Women HeForShe Global Gender Equality Champions release annual IMPACT Report

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• Marking the fifth anniversary of the iconic HeForShe movement, over 30 male global leaders from its flagship HeForShe Champions initiative release their annual IMPACT Report today;
• Heads of State, global CEOs and academic leaders are working to an accelerated timeline to demonstrate that significant progress for gender equality can be achieved in our lifetime;
• Through inspirational and uplifting real-life stories, the IMPACT Report demonstrates how individuals and communities all over the world are advancing gender equality across society, in the workplace, at home and with the next generation.

(New York, 24 September 2019)—Created by UN Women, the United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, the HeForShe solidarity movement for gender equality provides a systematic approach and targeted platform on which men and boys can engage and become change agents towards the achievement of gender equality. 

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women says, “We know that the commitment of men with power and privilege can be a major game changer for gender equality. We hope that the human stories and scalable, proven solutions given in this report will provide others with a roadmap to progress.” 

Download the full report from www.heforshe.org

Key report highlights: 

Gender Parity Data: Despite a 202 year wait for the economic gender gap to close, across the HeForShe Champions a steady increase in the representation of women at senior leadership is emerging with Turkey’s Koç Holding moving from 7 per cent women on the board in 2014 to 28 per cent in 2018, and Unilever’s non-executive board moving from 36 per cent women in 2014 to 45 per cent in 2018. 

Creating equality in society: Our societies remain marked by critical gender issues and latest figures estimate that 35 per cent of women experience some form of violence in their lifetime—an unchanged statistic. From Ghana though, we hear a story from the Ministry of Gender that is eliminating harmful norms around pregnant women in the community of Mafi Dove and from Romania, we hear the story of a male call center operator at the frontlines of domestic abuse reporting and how he is doing his part to end violence against women. 

Creating equality in the workplace: HeForShe male allies are evolving their own leadership styles to become more inclusive. We hear how a male Chief Operating Officer at Accor is challenging traditional stereotypes to empower women into leadership roles in Asia and how a male Senior Vice President at Electronic Arts joined forces with a female employee resource group to create more inclusive games. 

Creating equality at home: Family-friendly policies matter because they support children to get a better start in life. In the IMPACT Report, we hear from a male General Manager at Danone and why it was important for him to be at the heart of leading Danone’s 18-week gender-neutral paid parental leave policy. We also hear from a young father in South Africa, a customer of Vodacom’s—a subsidiary of Vodafone—and how he benefitted from their Mum and Baby service during his partner’s pregnancy. 

Creating equality with the next generation: Today, more than 262 million children and youth are out of school. HeForShe Champions though, are advocating for girls’ education and engaging men and boys on the need for gender equality. Hear from students at Stony Brook University on a how an innovative STEM programme is changing their views of this field and hear from student leaders from the World Organization of the Scout Movement on how they are spreading the gender equality message to all 50 million Scouts. 

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About HeForShe

Created by UN Women, the United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, the HeForShe solidarity movement for gender equality provides a systematic approach and targeted platform where a global audience can engage and become change agents for the achievement of gender equality in our lifetime. HeForShe invites people around the world to stand together as equal partners to craft a shared vision of a gender equal world and implement specific, locally relevant solutions for the good of all of humanity.