The Gender Equality Alliance is a network of companies that advocate for increasing the number of women in management and other places, equal opportunities for development and equal pay for the same work of women and men.
Almost 50% of the world’s population is women, but they are still far from achieving full equality in comparison with men. According to the latest report of the World Economic Forum on the state of gender equality, the greatest inequality of women is visible in the political sphere, followed by inequality in the field of economy.
Such statistics do not lag behind Serbia, so a survey carried out by IKEA in cooperation with Ipsos at the end of 2018 showed that over 50% of men in Serbia are aware of their privileged status in the workplace in relation to women, and every seventh woman in Serbia personally experienced discrimination in the workplace.
This research confirms that companies are expected to make a major contribution to achieving full equality for women. Over 15% of the population in Serbia believes that employers should change their internal rules to contribute to solving or reducing inequality of women in the workplace. That’s why IKEA Serbia launched an initiative at the level of CEOs of prominent companies in Serbia that will work together to promote gender equality in the workplace.
The initiative to launch the Alliance was created in cooperation with the Association for the Promotion of Women’s Potential (AFA) and with the support of the Kingdom of Sweden’s Embassy in the Republic of Serbia.
This Alliance is currently bringing together companies that employ close to 5,000 employees in Serbia and its aim is to expand it to as many companies as possible to exchange knowledge and internships for achieving gender balanced work environment, equal pay for the same work and equal representation of women and men. In addition to improving the situation in its work environment, the Alliance will also work to strengthen the local community in the field of gender equality. The company will present its contribution to achieving these, but also other goals, in a joint annual report.
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