American clothing retailer Ralph Lauren’s efforts to improve gender equity seem to have paid off!
The fashion retailer has made it to parity.org’s third annual ‘Best Companies for Women to Advance’ list.
Notably, only 43 companies have been included in the esteemed list, of which only two physical retailers have been selected – Ralph Lauren being the only one from the fashion sector.
The Parity List was set up to recognise only those companies that have policies, benefits and programmes that eliminate barriers to women’s advancement in the workplace.
The 43 companies were rated on the basis of recruitment, promotion, compensation practices, leadership representation as well as specific benefits and policies that together help companies achieve gender equity.
Of the companies on this year’s list, 88 per cent regularly measure and report to the executive team on gender equality metrics, while 86 per cent communicate their gender-equality values to employees.
Besides, 98 per cent offer flexible working hours and 95 per cent encourage men to take their full family leave.
Importantly, 98 per cent have a zero-tolerance harassment policy.
Another notable aspect was that 31 per cent of the companies have an executive team that is at least 50 per cent women.
One hopes to see more fashion retailers in next year’s list!
