Gender Assessment
Measuring companies at scale on their baseline gender equality performance.
Companies are uniquely positioned to address barriers to gender equality. The Gender Assessment checks if they introduce policies and practices that enable women employees, supply chain workers and individuals living in surrounding communities to thrive in normal times and endure turbulent ones.
Consumer-facing sectors outperform their peers in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment
While the overall performance of the 2,000 companies on gender falls short of expectations, several sectors are leading the way. Apparel & Footwear, Electronics, Personal & Household Products, and Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology have the highest average total score in this year’s Gender Assessment.
Sex-disaggregated data is mostly absent from corporate reporting
Fewer than a quarter of the 2,000 companies disclose sex-disaggregated data on key issues like the gender pay gap, promotions, and grievances. Without this data, it is difficult to assess progress or understand how far there is still to go. Fortunately, at least one company reports on each of these topics, paving the way for its peers to follow.
Unpaid care has yet to become a priority for most companies
The most common way companies are responding to unpaid care is by offering flexible working arrangements, followed by childcare and family support. However, the provision of maternity and paternity leave across global operations remains inconsistent, with companies often relying only on local legislation. This presents a critical opportunity for policymakers and companies to work together to raise standards and drive more equitable outcomes.
Most companies that achieve gender balance in leadership do so at the board level
Although 22% of companies have achieved gender balance at the board level, this progress has yet to be replicated consistently across other layers of leadership in the company.
Gender Benchmark vs Gender Assessment: What is the difference?
WBA has taken a dual approach to assess companies on gender equality, aiming for both scale and depth in our efforts to hold companies accountable on how they companies respect and promote gender equality.
The Gender Benchmark applies the full methodology across approximately 100 companies from two sectors that have been identified as having a great impact, both positive and negative, on gender equality: apparel, and food and agriculture. It is important to note that while these two high-impact sectors have been selected to be included in the Gender Benchmark, the full methodology may be applied to companies across all sectors.
The Gender Assessment focuses on scale and involve a subset of the full Gender Benchmark Methodology applied to all of the 2,000 companies we assess – to determine where they are on their path towards gender equality.
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