On the occasion of International Women's Day, ABB has taken another important step on the road to enhancing gender diversity, further advancing the Global Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2030. ABB has signed on to the United Nations' Empowering Women Principles to support the promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment in the workplace, marketplace and community.
On the occasion of International Women's Day, ABB has taken another important step on the road to enhancing gender diversity, further advancing the Global Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2030. ABB has signed on to the United Nations' Empowering Women Principles to support the promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment in the workplace, marketplace and community.
The Principles are a joint initiative of the UN Global Compact and UN Women in line with the 2030 Agenda and the UN Sustainable Development Goals to provide practical guidance to businesses through international multi-stakeholder collaboration.
Robion, CEO of ABB Group, said: "At ABB, we see diversity as one of our core strengths. Gender diversity is a key objective of our talent development strategy and sustainable development strategy. We plan to increase the number of women in senior management positions and early stage talent."
Sima Bahous, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, said: "We congratulate ABB on this important step in supporting the Empowerment of Women Principles. ABB is a key partner in our efforts to close gender gaps in the workplace, markets and communities and advance the Sustainable Development Goals."
In celebration of this year's International Women's Day, ABB has also expanded the company's Gender Equality Week, which aims to further strengthen gender equality in the workplace and society, and to raise employee awareness against unconscious bias, stereotypes and discrimination. The broad range of activities included virtual sessions, webinars and other events with ABB senior management, employees and women representatives of the United Nations. To date, more than 7,500 senior managers at ABB have participated in unconscious-bias training.
Gender equality is one of the key objectives of ABB's Global Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2030. Through this strategy, ABB plans to attract the best talent in the industry and provide equal development and career opportunities for everyone. At the same time, ABB wants to double the proportion of women in senior management positions globally to 25% by 2030. The number of women in ABB's senior management ranks will increase to 16.3% in 2021 from 13.5% in 2020.
Another milestone in ABB's journey towards a more diverse and inclusive corporate culture was the successful launch of a new gender-neutral childcare leave program globally, offering 12 weeks of paid leave for primary caregivers and four weeks of paid leave for secondary caregivers among ABB employees.
To further promote social progress, diversity and inclusion, ABB has established partnerships with a number of international organizations, including the global nonprofit Catalyst, Stonewall, the Society of Women Engineers, and the World Economic Forum. Since 2021, ABB has been the official global partner of the FIA's 'Girls on Track' programme, which provides young women aged 8-18 with the opportunity to learn about motorsport, with the aim of increasing female participation in motorsport and related fields. ABB also contributes to social progress through community building initiatives that focus on education, diversity, inclusion and caring in communities.
