Over the past 10 years, the World Economic Forum has brought together a community of influential leaders committed to addressing the global gender gap with a focus on the economic aspects of gender parity. We have benchmarked national, regional and industry gender gaps and gathered best practices adopted by leading companies in all regions of the world. The principles showcased in this toolkit highlight several approaches taken to closing gender gaps in companies across the globe. Each of these practices has a potentially transformative role but is most effective within a consistent company-wide strategy. For such an approach to work, leaders must commit for the long-term and manage some of the short-term barriers and trade-offs.

There is an urgent need to accelerate progress towards gender parity, particularly as labour markets face both technological disruption and talent shortages. We hope that the principles for action outlined herein will serve to deepen existing commitments, inspire fresh, impact-focused initiatives to promote gender parity, and further work with geographical and sectoral focus.

1. Commit as a first step. Build the case among senior management, understand current gaps, acknowledge bias, set targets and communicate the benefits of promoting gender parity across the organization.

2. Embed change by creating programmes that address your company’s core concerns, inclusive of efforts to address pay gaps, parental leave, performance reviews, hiring processes, mentoring, sponsoring, and safety and management training.

3. Scale your initiative beyond your company and promote change in your industry, community, value chains and wider society.