Swarovski has officially marked International Women’s Day for the past 5 years and, in 2018, it launched ‘The Future is Equal’ – a global campaign focused on equality. The initiative aims to champion gender equality by encouraging people to come together to accelerate change for a fair and equal world. The campaign reflects Swarovski’s commitment to the empowerment of women, both within the Swarovski business operations and in wider global communities through the efforts of the Swarovski Waterschool and Swarovski Foundation.
This is the third year of ‘The Future is Equal’ initiative. In 2018, 2,680 Swarovski employees took part in activities across 42 Swarovski sites around the world, and in 2019, 3380 employees were involved across 50 global locations. This International Women’s Day, Swarovski aims to expand awareness around gender equality, combat bias within business and raise awareness and charitable donations for its Swarovski Foundation partners Women for Women International and mothers2mothers.
Swarovski and Gender
With a workforce comprised of 77% women, Swarovski is well-placed to champion gender equality. As part of its wider commitment to sustainability and Conscious Luxury, Women’s Empowerment is a focus throughout the business. Swarovski believes that enabling women to fulfil their potential is not only good for business, but also has a positive impact on society. According to the latest World Economic Forum research, gender parity has a fundamental bearing on whether economies and societies thrive. Despite improvements over the last few years, gender parity will still not be attained for 99.5 years. Swarovski believes that equality is everyone’s business and that advancing gender equality is a global challenge, which requires support from all sides to spark positive change.
Women in the Jewelry Supply Chain
In 2018 Swarovski first partnered with Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help understand and inspire industry-wide action to address the barriers women face in the jewelry supply chain, the outcome was the first multi-stakeholder exploration and report publication on the topic. Throughout 2019 Swarovski expanded its commitment to empowering women in its supplier bases by joining BSR’s HERproject and has conducted projects in its supply chain focused on understanding how workplace health can unlock women’s full potential.
Unconscious Bias Training
Swarovski acknowledges that an understanding of bias is essential to substantially address workplace and societal inequalities, therefore, as part of this year’s ‘The Future is Equal’ campaign Swarovski is inviting employees across the world to participate in an eLearning program hosted by pioneering external partner The NeuroLeadership Institute. Swarovski has a commitment to train 500 colleagues by the end of 2020 and has a greater ambition to reach 2000 by the end of 2023.
Swarovski Foundation
The Swarovski Foundation has been supporting female empowerment initiatives and advocating for gender equality on a global scale, since its inception in 2013. The Swarovski Foundation has supported 848 female survivors of war in Nigeria to rebuild their lives through the Women for Women International’s empowerment program, which educates women about their rights and teaches them critical life skills and business skills. In 2018-2019 the Swarovski Foundation focused its support on mothers2mothers’ efforts in Kenya, helping to provide essential health education and training to five Mentor Mothers who work with their local communities to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child.
For the past two years, a partnership with Street Business School helped provide highly specialized entrepreneurial training for women living in deep poverty. Through a signature combination of business skills training and confidence building, Street Business School enables women to create and sustain their own micro-businesses, allowing them to triple their incomes.
Nadja Swarovski, Member of the Swarovski Executive Board, commented: “This International Women’s Day, as we mark our company’s 125th anniversary, we are proud to celebrate the spirit of all those who have helped to spark change for equality throughout history. Today we are delighted to expand our strong commitments to diversity and inclusion with our support for exciting new initiatives inside our business and beyond. Thank you for joining us as we spread this message of hope, to tell the world that #TheFutureIsEqual.”
#TheFutureIsEqual
#PositiveChange
#SparkChange
Discover more: https://www.swarovskigroup.com/S/aboutus/future_is_equal.en.html
