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"Gender Fair" Is Launched Today at Women in the World 2017 Companies are urged to commit to gender equality practices and motivate consumers to use their buying power for good
NEW YORK — April 5, 2017: Gender Fair, the world’s first and only independent marketplace solution for equality, launches today at Tina Brown’s Women in the World summit in Association with the New York Times, Gender Fair, a public benefit corporation, independently certifies companies with a real and substantial commitment to women’s equality. Gender Fair informs consumers which companies demonstrate a real and substantial commitment to women as employees, consumers, and citizens. ●
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Gender Fair does independent analysis of a company’s demonstrated commitment to equality, assessing women’s leadership, employee policies, philanthropy, and advertising. Companies are graded from C to A, with only 15 percent of the 200 companies studied so far receiving an A. Listing everything from family leave to equal pay, to the number of women in leadership, to the rejection of stereotypes in marketing communication, Gender Fair allows every woman to easily demonstrate her support of gender equality companies by shopping businesses and brands that display the Gender Fair mark. The data and ratings culled from public data is published on the Gender Fair app available in Apple’s app store.
At WITW, Gender Fair is hosting a lounge that showcases products made by companies already identified as being Gender Fair, The lounge is sponsored by Mastercard, Procter & Gamble, and a number of other Gender Fair Partner Companies. The lounge’s museum-style cases display information on the companies' gender metrics. The exhibit illustrates the Gender Fair idea: by purchasing certain products and shopping at Gender Fair companies, consumers can advance women. It’s located in Lincoln Center in the Grand Lobby of the David H Koch Theater (open during the summit hours).
This marketing/CSR program will create a new paradigm of women’s buying power while urging all companies to demonstrate their commitment to gender equality. Companies that score an A on the index are eligible to join the platform and use the mark on products and marketing materials to clearly differentiate themselves as leaders in social good and provide consumers with validation that they are supporting companies with shared values, similar to a Fair Trade or "Cruelty-Free" mark. “Savvy marketers respect that women are the world’s most powerful consumers and that they have great influence in how everyday purchases are made,” said Gender Fair Founding Partner Kristi Faulkner. “The Gender Fair mark is a unique way to tap into that power and attract more women, as it’s a persuasive and powerful differentiator for consumers.” Nearly half (49 percent) of all shoppers said they would pay more for a product from companies that practice gender equality.1 However, only a small number of consumer-facing companies have adopted practices to promote gender equality and empower women — only 15 percent in the current database. More importantly, it has been difficult for consumers to know and support the companies that do serve women well — until now. The Gender Fair mark will solve this problem. “American women have a buying power of $7 trillion dollars and influence 73 percent of purchases,” said Gender Fair Founder Amy-Willard Cross. “The Gender Fair mark is designed to highlight the companies that are doing it right and encourage more companies to get on board by practicing gender equality and making changes in their leadership and policies that elevate them to the highest level.” The Gender Fair mark will extend membership and partnerships to companies that scored high on the Gender Fair index metrics across multiple industries. Amy-Willard Cross points out that the Human Rights Campaign’s similar rating system managed to change policies in over 500 large companies. After years of promoting and shopping with the Gender Fair mark, Cross imagines an equal sea change for women and predicts that if just a portion of companies analyzed makes changes to improve their scores, “paid maternity leave will be extended to an additional four million families.”
About Gender Fair: Available on the Apple store, the Gender Fair app allows you to make purchasing decisions based on a company's demonstrated commitment to gender equality. Gender Fair rates everyday brands and products and the companies behind them. Using the Gender Fair ratings is an easy way to help make the world a more equal place.
The metrics for the index were derived from the UN’s Women's Empowerment Principles and collect 12 major data points across four major areas: leadership, employee policies, marketing, and philanthropy. Gender Fair performs extensive research, poring through publicly available data to look for key data points. The research and scoring for Gender Fair is done with the highest journalistic standards by researching and fact-checking several times over.
