The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Business SA and the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) are the latest Australian businesses to sign to the Women’s Empowerment Principles, at a luncheon hosted by ACCI in Sydney this week.
The Women’s Empowerment Principles, a joint initiative of UN Women and the UN Global Compact, are a set of seven principles that offer guidance for business based on best practices from around the world. Amongst the Principles is to treat all women and men fairly at work, promotion education, training and professional development for women and measure and publicly report on progress to achieve gender equality.
When signing the WEPs, companies often do not have have all seven Principles firmly in place, but sign the Principles as a declaration of intention to transform their workplace. The cultural change that results can improve the reputation of the organisation, as well as improve bottom line performance and make full use of the talent pool of women in business.
Despite the strong business case for working for gender equality within organisations, many Australian companies do not see gender diversity amongst their top priorities. ACCI, Business SA and the Australian Institute of Management however demonstrated their commitment to gender equality by singing the WEPs in front of 200 national and international businesspeople, NGO representatives and government staff in Sydney this week.
