Is gender equality 300 years away?

Happy International Women’s Day! A day to celebrate women, but also a day to be used as a call to action as pointed out yesterday at the launch of RISE.

Earlier this week United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, warned that progress on gender equality is “vanishing before our eyes” and that we may be as far as 300 years away from gender equality; a gap that is currently growing.

RISE, which stands for Reimagining Industry to Support Equality, is an initiative that hopes to bring much needed progress in this area. It is a collaboration of BSR’s HERproject, Gap Inc., P.A.C.E, CARE and Better Work who have come together to scale impact and accelerate equality for women workers in global garment, footwear, and home furnishings supply chains. It is estimated 75% of the 60 million workers in these industries are women. Women who may experience gender inequality, and instances of harassment or violence at work, among other systemic barriers to empowerment and gender equity.

RISE hopes to transform this industry, yet also influence other industries, and.aims to pursue its mission through three core strategies: (1) strengthening knowledge and skills for factory workers and managers; (2) transforming business practices to include gender equality, and (3) influencing public policy and other key actors.

The four founding partner organizations already work with 50 of some of the world’s largest apparel, footwear, and home furnishings brands and have reached more than five million women workers globally. The ambition is to increase this to up to 20 million workers over the next decade.

Read here for more information on this new initiative: https://www.empoweratwork.org/ and Fashion Industry’s Four Largest Women’s Empowerment Programs Form New Initiative RISE To Scale Impac | Gap Inc. At Intertek, we are always very happy to engage further on the topic of gender equality too and can offer related services, so please do not hesitate to come to us with any questions/comments on this topic to see how we can best help you further.