A recent report that shows women hold 6.6% of leadership positions in Fortune 500 companies has not gone unnoticed by haircare brand, TRESemmé, which has launched a campaign designed to help close the gender gap.
TRESemmé is using its platform as the official haircare sponsor of the 23rdseason of New York Fashion Week to launch its #WomenLeadTheWay Pledge.
Top designers like Rebecca Minkoff, Jonathan Simkhai, Cushnie and Jason Wu, along with other pledge designer partners have already committed to accelerating the pace of change by advancing more women into leadership.
“These stats confirmed our feeling that something needed to change in our industry. The gender gap is especially problematic in fashion, where women make up more than 70 percent of the total workforce, yet hold less than 25 percent of leadership positions in top fashion companies,” says TRESemmé Brand Engagement Director, Jessica Grigoriou.
The Unilever-owned brand, which for the past 70 years, has helped women look and feel good, says confidence without opportunity continues to prevent women from reaching their greatest potential.
“Confidence can only get you so far in a broken system with unconscious bias and other barriers,” says Grigoriou.
“TRESemmé understands that in order to create real change, you need to provide opportunities to help women throughout the pipeline. We want to provide women with access to the resources needed to drive them toward leadership opportunities and help ensure they can succeed there.”
The haircare brand says it’s time for organizations to come together and take bold action to commit to making real change.
It’s asking companies who commit to itsWomen Lead the Waypledge to participate in two ways: to strive for gender balance across the organization through balanced slates with respect to recruiting and promotion and secondly, to establish formal development and mentorship opportunities for women at all levels of the organization
“Once a participant signs on, TRESemmé will work with pledge participants towards activating their commitments to ensure accountability and progress to make a change. It starts with the organizations,” says Grigoriou.
“We’re hopeful that additional companies within the fashion and beauty space will feel empowered to follow suit once they see significant change from our efforts.”
Beyond fashion week, TRESemmé says it will continue its partnerships with Vital Voices and Girlboss, two leading organizations dedicated to advancing women’s representation in leadership.
With Vital Voices, TRESemmé has introduced an annual year-long Leadership Incubator, which will provide visionary women with funding, curated training, and mentorship to advance their leadership journey.
With Girlboss, it will make mentorship resources available at scale to their community of women, helping them achieve their goals and define success in their own terms.
“We know that women have the drive and experience to lead, but their opportunities for leadership continue to lag, as men consistently outnumber women in leadership positions across the board. A combination of biases, stereotypes, and discrimination have been roadblocks to female empowerment at all levels of society,” says Grigoriou.
