International Women's Day is an event to mark the achievements of women across the world and it's also a reminder to us all that we are not at our best when there is a gender imbalance. Rolls-Royce is committed to being fair and inclusive and we already have many incredible women across our business, but we are actively working towards greater business diversity, with a keen focus on gender balance.
There is a global requirement for more women in STEM, to meet the world’s demands for talent. To help build this talent pipeline, our community investment and education outreach teams engage children as young as three and actively target under-represented groups around the world to encourage and support them to study and develop careers in STEM. Since 2014, we’ve reached 6.8 million people. You’ll find stories about this here.
As a leading business within the aviation industry, we have also just signed up to IATA 25 by 2025, which is a commitment to improve female representation in the industry by 25%, or up to a minimum of 25% by 2025. We are proud to be part of this campaign and we are committed to increasing the number of women in leadership positions to a minimum representation of 25 % by 2025.
But gender balance is more than just numbers; it’s about creating a culture and environment that’s inclusive and that brings out the best in everyone. We’ve made this a priority in our business and it’s reflected in our values and behaviours and in our policies, from flexible working through to shared parental leave.
"It's well known, and there are lots of studies that back this up, that more diverse teams get better business results." says Chris Walker, Co-chair of our UK Gender Diversity Network. "Not only should we all want a good gender balance because the world is balanced and we want to represent the people we serve (both customers and employees), but because it will make Rolls-Royce better, as a great place to work, as a top performer in our industry, and as a company that makes us proud to tell our families about."
Often the task of getting a better gender balance falls to women, but becoming gender balanced should involve us all. We can each play a part in creating more inclusive and diverse teams, whatever role we have in our companies, and in our communities.
In the weeks flanking International Women’s Day, at Rolls-Royce, we are marking the occasion by celebrating women's contribution to the workplace and the world, and by exploring how becoming gender balanced can, and should, involve all of us, whatever our gender.
"There are some great activities taking place across the business globally and there will be many more," adds Chris. "We’re encouraging all our people to get involved and find out what they can do, whatever their gender, to make a difference. We’re determined not to leave this to the minority to fix."
Here is a flavour of our activity taking place across many sites:
- “Wall of Women” celebrations: teams at many of our sites in different countries are recognising role-models at Rolls-Royce by building image walls.
- Appreciation boards, panel discussions, lunch & learns, insight hours and working sessions about relevant topics, for example: confidence in the workplace.
- Daily video challenges of how we can make our workplace more inclusive.
- Speed debating about why gender balance helps us all and what we can each do.
- Supporting events, such as The Association of Project Management discussion on how project management and improving gender balance go together.
- Gatherings of some of our amazing women, as illustrated by the photo which shows our services team with global guests in Derby.
We wish everyone an uplifting International Women’s Day!
Photo: thank you to Frida Risper Nzaba for sharing this great picture!