The Women’s Empowerment Principles, a joint initiative of the UN Global Compact and UN Women, are a set of standards aiming to set a foundation of equality and to advocate for workplace rights for women. In this post by the UN Global Compact, learn more about the principles and how empowering women to participate fully—both economically and professionally—helps raise the standard for business and society.
Article by UN Global Compact
In collaboration with UN Women, the UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with 10 universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. By doing so, business, as a primary driver of globalization, can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere.
A key component to achieving several initiatives for 2015 is the empowerment of women in communities and in the workplace.
Women’s Empowerment Principles are a set of principles for business offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. They are the result of a collaboration between the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the United Nations Global Compact.
The Women’s Empowerment Principles are:
1. Leadership promotes gender equality
2. Equal opportunity, inclusion and nondiscrimination
3. Health, safety and freedom from violence
4. Education and training
5. Enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices
6. Community leadership and engagement
7. Transparency, measuring and reporting
The Women’s Empowerment Principles—Equality Means Business is a joint initiative of UN Women and the UN Global Compact. The Principles outline seven steps for business on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. The Principles highlight that empowering women to participate fully in economic life across all sectors and throughout all levels of economic activity is essential to build strong economies; establish more stable and just societies; achieve internationally agreed goals for development, sustainability and human rights; improve quality of life for women, men, families and communities; and propel business’ operations and goals. Learn more at the WEP’s Website. For a full list of companies that have signed the CEO Statement of Support for the WEP’s click here: WEPs Company Database
This year, a number of global milestones—the twentieth anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action (PfA), the Post-2015 Development Agenda and anticipated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—provide a unique opportunity to ensure that the business community commits, contributes and is a key partner to achieving gender equality.
