adidas continues push for equality in sports, increasing visibility for female athletes
Women in sport lack visibility — research shows that only 4 percent of sports media coverage in the U.S. is dedicated to women’s sport; adidas is tackling this problem head on by pursuing equality and representation in the media.
This week, adidas moved into the second phase of its “She Breaks Barriers” initiative with a film featuring four athletes and ESPN’s Maria Taylor,
that calls for equal media representation for women in sport.
The brand has also announced a partnership with Twitter and Intersport to livestream women’s high school volleyball and soccer games on the service for
the first time ever. These new partnerships and continued initiatives are designed to raise awareness of issues and break down the barriers that stand
between girls and sport — namely, lack of access, negative stereotypes, visibility and inequality.
“We believe she needs to see strong female role models to inspire her to pursue her dreams. As part of our continued efforts to increase visibility for women and girls in sport, we have committed to ensuring that we will have equal gender representation across our owned social channels. This is the first step in changing how we will approach content creation in the future,” said Nicole Vollebregt, SVP of Global Purpose for adidas.
HP Inc. expands social impact partnerships to support girls’ education
DEI and sustainability: The ROI of inclusive corporate cultures
Join us as leaders from the Accomplis Collective, Bard, Beneficial State Foundation, ReEngineering HR and REI share best practices for cultivating a culture of belonging and insights into how inclusive leadership can lead to more effective and equitable sustainability outcomes — Wednesday, Oct. 16, at SB'24 San Diego.
HP is aiming to reinvent the future of women and girls everywhere by coupling powerful storytelling with education and technology, a combination showcased in
the film, “Brave Girl Rising,” debuting today at https://girlrising.org/brave, created by Girl Rising, Citi and the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and supported by HP.
“This is a time for us to reflect on the remarkable contributions that women have made to HP and to society, while also committing to do even more,” said Dion Weisler, President and CEO of HP Inc. “We celebrate this day by providing inspiration, leadership and service to women everywhere. Diversity and inclusion is a part of our innovation strategy, is core to our values as a company, and contributes to the overall success of our business.”
“Brave Girl Rising”
The 20-minute short film spearheaded by Girl Rising — the nonprofit behind the global campaign for girls’ education and empowerment, and ongoing storytelling partner of HP — was created, written and inspired by refugees, and narrated by actress Tessa Thompson. The film shares the story of Nasro, a 17-year-old Somali refugee whose courageous drive to continue her education is inspired by the magical dreams of her mother and the sisterhood of her friends.
To coincide with the film’s release, Girl Rising, IRC, HP and Amplifier Foundation will launch a major campaign that includes screening toolkits, curricula, action guides and a street art initiative.
The power of technology and education
HP believes that technology is a key enabler in delivering education. In honor of International Women’s Day, HP also announces the expansion of its social impact programs to accelerate its gender-equity efforts. Programs such as the recent collaboration with the Clooney Foundation for Justice, UNICEF and Google.org that provides technology and training to Syrian refugees at nine Lebanese schools, is one of the many ways HP is expanding its efforts.
This partnership is only one example of how HP intends to deliver on its goal of
bringing digital literacy to 100 million people by
2025.
By contributing over $20 million in training and
R&D,
and innovations such as HP School
Cloud,
HP has already served 14.5 million students and adult learners.
Women Deliver
Elevating the voices of women and girls is another way HP approaches its gender
equity advocacy. Last year, HP and Women Deliver launched “Stories of
Advocacy,” a unique partnership to support its global Young Leaders
Program. This
program empowers youth advocates to catalyze gender equality action for girls
and women in their communities. HP provides ongoing support, as well as
technology, that drives the young leaders’ advocacy platforms forward.
At the upcoming Women Deliver conference, billed as the largest gathering in
the world devoted to gender equality, HP will host breakout discussions and
experiential storytelling with the Young Leaders themselves.
Nurturing the next generation of advocates and girls in STEM
HP also continues to enhance its STEM advocacy and education. For the second
year in a row, HP will send a graduate cohort from Black Girls Code to
Austin for the SXSW technology festival. The HP delegation will sit on the
“Future Tech Boss” panel alongside other graduates of the program to discuss
career paths and their own aspirations in the tech industry.
To reach younger girls, HP is partnering with Black Girls Code on an Enrichment
Workshop series that utilizes storytelling, creativity and technology to inspire
coding in five and six-year-olds. HP will provide students with “Rox’s Secret
Code” storybooks, which will serve as the basis for building and coding their
own 3D, augmented reality, custom robot. Once the workshop is over, the students
will be able to continue the coding adventure via picture books and an app.
Advocating for employees
Internally, HP is structuring a monthlong celebration around International
Women’s Day. The company is debuting the “Rising Together” Speaker Series,
offering employees a lineup of HP senior leaders who will share their insights
on topics including male allies, personal growth, advocacy and how to grow one’s
career.
The series is just one example of how HP continues to increase the number of
women in its workforce and in positions of leadership. Women now represent 30
percent of HP’s senior leaders and comprise 36 percent of HP’s workforce
worldwide. Additionally, HP has the most diverse Board of Directors of any
Fortune 100 technology company in the US (54 percent total minorities, 45
percent women, 27 percent underrepresented minorities).
HP says its bold vision for the future has a lot more women and underrepresented
groups contributing to the health and success of its business.
Diageo releases short film about gender balance in advertising
Spirits giant Diageo’s new short film discusses the role of advertising in
shaping culture, the historic misrepresentation of women in advertising and
strategies, and partnerships to support more progressive gender portrayal in
content.
The film also focuses on the importance of diversity in the advertising industry
itself – highlighting the organizations working to address imbalances behind the
camera and in creative departments.
“Through the millennia, culture has been shaped by the stories we tell and if
you think about it, advertising is telling stories that are backed by billions
of dollars to have them heard,” says Diageo CMO Syl Saller. “I am convinced
we can normalize gender equality with what we choose to show in our ads, and who
we choose to make them. We strongly believe that diverse teams create all kinds
of different stories, stories which portray men and women as they really are,
stories that are eminently relatable.”
The film’s release comes as 50 women take part in the Creative Equals
“Returners” scheme called #CreativeComeback. Backed by the UK
Government Equalities Office, the scheme is designed to support women in the
UK creative industries as they return to work after a career break of at least
12 months, with an ultimate goal to place female art directors,
producers, copywriters, data analysts, designers and concept
creators back into work.
Diageo is a sponsor of the scheme and the group of returners will work on briefs
for two of Diageo’s iconic global brands – Baileys and Guinness. The latter is
celebrating becoming an official partner of the 2019 Women’s Six Nations with a
new ad campaign following the rivalry between two rugby-playing sisters on
opposing national teams.
“Sisters,” released to coincide with International Women’s Day and the
England vs Scotland match, tells the real-life story of siblings Harriet and
Bridget Millar-Mills, who grew up playing rugby together until 2013, when
they competed in the Women’s Six Nations on opposing teams; one sister was
drafted to England and the other to Scotland.
PepsiCo Foundation, CARE tackle gender inequality in agriculture
Meanwhile, from films to fields … the PepsiCo Foundation has announced a
partnership with global poverty-fighting organization CARE with an $18.2
million grant to tackle gender inequality in the agriculture sector. The grant
will provide 5 million female farmers and their families around the world with
education, resources and economic support to help them increase their crop
yields, incomes and access to nutrition locally.
The partnership is part of a broader effort by PepsiCo to support a more
sustainable food system by empowering women in its own agricultural supply chain
— including through its Sustainable Farming Program currently active in 38
countries, and by investing in multisector agricultural programs that have the
potential to achieve systems change at scale.
Women account for nearly
half of
all agricultural labor in developing countries and work as much as 13 hours more
per week than men — often without training, proper tools such as seeds and
fertilizers, and rights to their land. Research shows that if female farmers had
the same access to resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms
by 20-30
percent,
potentially reducing the number of hungry people in the world by up to 150
million.
To meet the nutrition needs of a growing global population, CARE has
launched She Feeds the
World, the
largest food and nutrition security program in its 70-year history, benefitting
50 million female farmers and their families in the developing world. As the
largest private sector donor, The PepsiCo Foundation’s investment will help
women access the resources they need to increase their production — including land
rights, financing and agricultural inputs, such as seeds; access new markets for
their products; and develop the skills and techniques to build resilient and
sustainable farms. The grant will support women farmers in significant food
producing countries and where PepsiCo and CARE work: Egypt, Guatemala,
India, Nigeria, Peru and Uganda.
“She Feeds the World will help millions of small hold women farmers get the
resources and training they need to increase their crop yields, access markets
and gain more reliable sources of income,” said Ramon Laguarta, PepsiCo
Chairman and CEO and The PepsiCo Foundation Chairman. “The PepsiCo Foundation is
investing in this initiative because it has the potential to create change at
scale, increasing food security and enhancing the livelihoods of 50 million
women farmers and their families.”
“We are thrilled to partner with The PepsiCo Foundation, which shares our belief
that women farmers possess enormous potential to substantially improve family
nutrition and reduce hunger. Grounded in 70 years of experience developing
impactful and proven models, CARE’s She Feeds the World is a bold approach that
aims to scale what works,” said Michelle Nunn, CARE’s President and CEO. “We
know that we cannot do this work without engaging forward-thinking private
sector partners, like The PepsiCo Foundation, to catalyze systemic and lasting
change.”
PepsiCo and CARE have also launched a global campaign called “Closing the Crop
Gap” to give women a platform to tell their own stories about the challenges
they face in agriculture.
This campaign spotlights female farmers in India, Egypt, Guatemala, Poland
and the United States with short-form videos created by female videographers
from the same regions as the farmers whose stories they are sharing. Members of
the public can vote for their favorite video, in exchange for a credit for
a Kiva microloan that can be used to benefit other female
entrepreneurs. The videographer who receives the most votes will be invited to
create an extended, three-part docuseries that explores the experiences of women
in agriculture. Voting began on March 7 and more information can be found
at closingthecropgap.com.
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Mar 8, 2019 5am EST / 2am PST / 10am GMT / 11am CET