15 American companies sign SDG 5 pledge

Fifteen American companies operating in the UAE have pledged to put women in 30 percent of their local leadership positions by 2025.

Some 24 major local and international private-sector companies in the UAE have already signed the UAE Gender Balance Council pledge this year.

The pledge is known as the SDG 5 Pledge to Accelerate Women’s Leadership in the UAE Private Sector. The UAE has aligned its vision to the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs): SDG 5 is gender equality.

The 15 companies that signed the pledge in November are:

1. Emerson
2. Accenture
3. L3Harris
4. Mediclinic Middle East
5. Fragomen
6. Boeing
7. Oshkosh Defense
8. Lockheed Martin
9. Raytheon
10. EVAP Investment
11. Viatris
12. Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi
13. Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi
14. Grand Hyatt Abu Dhabi
15. NYU Abu Dhabi

Actions in the pledge involve:

• Fostering a culture that encourages all employees to achieve their full potential
• Ensuring equal pay and fair compensation
• Promoting gender-equitable recruitment and promotion
• Making gender balance ‘mainstream’ through company policies and programmes
• Being transparent about progress with the other companies involved in the pledge and with the government.

The new tranche of 15 companies are all members of AmCham Abu Dhabi.

HH Sheikha Manal bint Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, president of the UAE Gender Balance Council, president of Dubai Women Establishment and wife of HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Court, said: “Through the willingness of the companies to sign the SDG 5 Pledge to Accelerate Women’s Leadership in the UAE Private Sector, the UAE will be able to utilise this important public-private partnership to bridge the gaps in gender balance.”

HE Mona Al Marri, vice President of the UAE Gender Balance Council, added, “This is a milestone moment. Some of the largest American companies in the UAE, in strategically important sectors, are publicly committing to meeting the 30% target. I commend you for prioritising this within your organisations and for recognising the numerous benefits of more equitable leadership ranks.”

“Mid-level women need opportunities, and access to the type of experience they will need higher up,” Aurora50 co-founder Diana Wilde says. “Then, on top of this access, we need to encourage women to step forward, to inspire and educate them to take on those roles.”

One of the biggest issues for mid-level women, she says, is getting access to key executive skills such as profit and loss (P&L) or budget experience, which are ‘musts’ for executive roles. It is also important to start women early, to create a lengthy C-suite pipeline, she adds.

Find out more about NOORA, Aurora50’s network for corporate women.