Gender Equality: remaining focused on how far we still have to go

How do we ensure that women around the world can freely express their talents and aspirations? This question doesn't suddenly arise on March 8 each year. It is always present—in our thinking, in the decisions we make, and in the actions we take. But International Women's Day offers us the chance to stop for a moment and consider the progress made so far—and how far we still have to go.

The fifth of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals urges us to "achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls" — because promoting gender equality is essential in all areas of social life, from education and health to combating poverty and climate change. 

BNP Paribas carries out its banking activities in 72 countries; as such, we can, and must, contribute to progress around us and to strive towards this UN goal. It is why women are at the heart of many of the projects that we are supporting, whether as a bank, partner or sponsor. 

A role at least equal to that of men in agroecological transformation projects

In Indonesia and India, for example, the programmes we are developing alongside the UN give women a role at least equal to that of men in agroecological transformation projects in these two developing countries. In Africa, we are announcing today, together with UN Women's Representative Oulimata Sarr, our participation in a programme that aims to foster food security and female entrepreneurship in Senegal. This initiative will, by 2021, empower 30,000 women farmers in Senegal – an important goal when we realise that women, worldwide, constitute only 13% of agricultural landowners.* 

This momentum of female entrepreneurship is advancing practically everywhere in the world, and it is central to our mission to serve our customers. We are providing active support, such as the €2 billion in financing that our retail bank in France has set aside to fund projects run by women entrepreneurs. Similarly, the Women entrepreneur program managed by our Wealth Management business each year gathers together women business leaders from around the world at Stanford University in order to accelerate their business growth.

And in our own company, too, we need to create the conditions that allow our female employees to feel free to enter the careers they aspire to. I won't list here the various agreements signed, commitments made, and initiatives put in place over the past ten years to promote diversity and equality in our workplace. And we should remember that women are in the majority at BNP Paribas. They occupy 28% of our 3,000 key, senior-management positions. They occupied only 19% in 2010. As for our "emerging talents", who are younger employees identified as having high-potential, here too we are nearly at parity: the big challenge is to maintain parity as this generation advances in their careers.

I have personally committed to advancing gender equality in occupations dominated by men or women

Although encouraging, these numbers are still inadequate. As I am keenly aware of the need for faster progress, a year ago I joined the Thematic Champions community, which is part of UN Women's HeForShe initiative. In this respect I have personally committed to advancing gender equality in occupations dominated by men or women. Our teams are working towards this goal with determination. They are also mindful that it’s a subject that touches on our education, biases and stereotypes. It’s also a subject that is deeply meaningful for all our people at BNP Paribas, and they are as proud as I am to be contributing to a better future—for everyone. 

*Source: UN Women