.…launches #WeSeeEqual Campaign ahead of International Women’s Day.
Procter and Gamble (P&G) has launched a campaign dubbed “#WeSeeEqual” to advocate for gender equality ahead of International Women’s Day. P&G has been championing the cause of gender equality both inside and outside of the company, leveraging the strengths of their business and operations, and using their scale and advertising voice to address gender bias and enable education for girls and women’s economic empowerment. This ultimately led to a partnership with the International Women’s Society Nigeria (IWS) to sponsor the IWS breakfast forum.
During the breakfast forum celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD), the theme #BeBoldForChange was addressed and key issues affecting the welfare and development of women in the society were considered with an emphasis on INNOVATION, MENTORING, FEMINISM AND THE QUEST FOR EXCELLENCE. The video for P&G’s #WeSeeEqual campaign was also displayed to attendees.
The International Women’s Society was founded in 1957 in Lagos. The groups’ aims and objectives are similar to that of P&G’s including; the promotion of understanding among people and to work for the advancement of women and children in Nigeria in the areas of social welfare, health, finance and education.
The partnership between IWS and P&G is natural because they focus on the advancement of women and children. P&G believes in the role and impact they can have in creating a better world, and gender equality has been an area of focus for many years.
In addition to their sponsorship of the International Women’s Societies Breakfast, P&G also sponsored WeConnect’s W.I.N Exhibition and Conference; which featured one of the richest women in Africa Folorunso Alakija as the keynote speaker. The Group Manager for Design and Financial Analysis EMEA Oral Care at P&G Bukki Agbeniga also featured and gave the corporate member address to the predominantly female audience.
P&G’s Always brand has a 30-year history of providing puberty and hygiene education and is reaching over 17 million girls across the world each year. In Nigeria P&G has initiated the ‘Always School’ program in order to regularly distribute sanitary towels to girls from underprivileged areas. The program reaches up to 1 million girls annually and has also provided education grants for over 300 Nigerian girls.
Through the launch of a new campaign titled #WeSeeEqual P&G are using its brands and corporate voice to focus on three main areas;
- Leveraging their strong voice in advertising and media to tackle gender bias by changing mindsets and creating new expectations.
- Helping remove gender-biased barriers to education for girls and economic opportunities for women through their programs and public policy advocacy efforts.
- Reinforcing their commitment to remove obstacles to equal representation of women at all levels in all parts of their Company and build a highly inclusive culture where everyone – men AND women – can achieve their full potential.
P&G’s global branding officer Marc Prichard said, “We realized that because we are a leading company of brands, we can use our voice to express our point of view about gender equality. We believe the world should be free of gender bias. We should have equal representation of men and women. We should have equal voice of men and women. And this should be an opportunity on International Women’s Day to put our point of view out there.”
“We can be a positive force for good and we believe in the power of partnership working with organizations who share our aspirations.” He also added.
P&G hires 50% women into entry level management roles and they get promoted into next assignments at the same progression as men. The company also has 45% of managers and a third of its board who are women.
