Tuesday was International Women’s Day and this year’s theme was Pledge for Parity, encouraging everyone to pledge to take a concrete step to help achieve gender parity. But, with women’s unemployment rate in the EU 12% higher than that of men, and women earning 16% less per hour of work than men^*, there is a lot of work still to do. 

In fact, according to the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Global Gender Gap Report it will take no less than 117 years to reach global gender parity in the workplace. So what can we do to reduce this estimate? And, what role can business play?

Well let’s start with International Women’s Day – an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women while calling for greater gender equality. As a company, we’re determined to do our bit and want to help young women feel empowered to consider careers that have traditionally been dominated by men.

This is particularly important in industries like manufacturing, where the gender gap within Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) careers is of particular concern. It’s no secret that the European manufacturing sector is suffering from a skills shortage, and one serious gap is the low number of women – currently only 13% of those working in STEM^*.

One of the biggest issues for young people is that they simply don’t know enough about the jobs traditionally done by the opposite sex, with 76% saying they would like to know more. In fact, 66% of girls claim they would be tempted to train for a typically male-dominated job if they had more information about the type of work they could do [1].

So why should we take heed of this?  Well firstly, there is a business case. Companies that actively seek and recruit a diverse workforce are 45% more likely to improve their market share.^**

Organisations that reflect the realities of the world around them are far better placed to understand the needs of their customers and consumers and also recruit and retain the best employees. At Coca-Cola Enterprises, we believe that a diverse workforce means having diversity of ideas, thinking and experience – which leads to enhanced ways of working and ultimately to better internal decision-making.

But it’s not just about business benefits.  Ultimately we’re determined to make a change because it’s the right thing to do.

Since 2012 we’ve increased the number of female employees in leadership grades by 24% and we now have 33% women on our Board of Directors. As an organisation we have 30% women in our Executive Leadership Team, which is more than the European average.

Whilst it’s a good start, we as a company and as an industry still have a long journey ahead.  Coca-Cola Enterprises’ ambition is to have a minimum of 40% women in management leadership grades by 2025. It’s not going to be easy but we’re determined to make it a reality.

This year, we’re opening our doors and inviting female students, aged 13-16, to take part in networking events across our territories. Here they will have the opportunity to learn more about careers in manufacturing and discuss how their career aspirations can be realised.  

For International Women’s Day this year I hope everyone, from shop floor to top floor, reflects on what parity truly means and how we all have a role to play.