Procter & Gamble and UN Women held the #WeSeeEqual Summit in Mumbai, India. The Summit brought together business and government leaders, and influencers to share inspiration and surface insights around the myths that prevent the acceleration towards gender equality.
The Summit brought together the leading voices to share perspectives on gender equality in its many facets including women’s economic empowerment, the role of advertising and media, the myths that are holding women back from equal representation in leadership and the workplace, and the importance of male champions as advocates.
During the day-long program, speakers shared their perspectives with an audience of P&G leaders, business partners, media professionals, civil society leaders, and government representatives.
During the event, Procter & Gamble (P&G) announced a new commitment around a number of initiatives that will promote gender equality across the Indian subcontinent, Middle East and Africa (IMEA) region.
Over the next three years:
- P&G aims to spend USD 100 million on deliberately working with Women-Owned Businesses in India, Middle East and Africa
- P&G will educate more than 23 million adolescent girls on puberty and hygiene across India, Middle East and Africa;
- P&G and its brands will use women voices in brand advertising like Ariel, Whisper, Always & Gillette and in other forums and multi-stakeholder efforts to spark conversation and motivate change.
P&G is a long-time global advocate of women empowerment and gender parity through various impact programmes and the company has helped empower and shape societal perception of women.
P&G is actively supporting multiple UN Women initiatives:
- Through partnership on the “Stimulating equal opportunities for women entrepreneurs” program, P&G has a special focus on building an inclusive business environment for women, and supporting women entrepreneurs, especially small-scale suppliers, to access corporate value chains, including that of P&G, with programs currently in place in Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa.
- A founding member of UN Women’s Unstereotype Alliance, P&G is helping galvanize collective action to proactively address and eliminate gender stereotypes in advertising globally. P&G has been leading the way for many years with progressive portrayals of women and girls in its brand advertising campaigns, and importantly also demonstrates the importance of men in promoting gender equality through landmark campaigns by some of the world leading brands.
- P&G is also supporting UN Women’s “Tracking study on gender equality attitudes”, which will provide urgent data on attitudes towards gender equality and help inform corrective action through policy and education.