March 8, 2016
This year, AXA is celebrating outstanding women
Almost seven years ago, the AXA Group set itself the goal to promote more women to top management positions as part of its newly established focus on Diversity & Inclusion. Today, its efforts are being rewarded with real progress, and International Women’s Day 2016 is a fitting occasion to highlight them.
2 minutes
A new ambition for Women in senior leadership (GSE): 33%
In 2009, women represented only 9% of the Group Senior Executives (GSEs) across AXA and there were no women on the AXA France executive committee.
Since then, the Group has made significant progress. By 2014 the ratio was 16% and in 2015 this further accelerated to 21%. The participation level is expected to reach the initial target of 25% in 2016 and is now well placed to achieve the new ambition of, at least, 33% by 2020.
Three women (43%) have joined the 7-person executive committee of AXA France and 40% of the researchers supported by the AXA Research Fund are women, a significant percentage considering that women only represent 28% of the scientific community.
Clearly, there is room for improvement to reach gender equality at top management and elsewhere in AXA but we are moving in the right direction and taking concrete steps every day to promote the success of women in the workplace.
Being an @AXA woman
By rolling out Group-level sponsorship programs, creating think tanks and offering networking opportunities to women, AXA has walked the walk and translated its ambitions into concrete, Group-wide initiatives.
For the third year in a row, AXA held its Women’s Conference with the aim to foster the professional development and advancement of women in the workplace, by attracting and retaining talented women and creating an agile, inclusive work environment.
The She For Shield report produced in partnership with the IFC (part of the- World Bank) and published in September 2015 explores the potential offered by the market of insurance for women. AXA is the first insurer to position itself in this customer segment, which is worth a potential $1.5 trillion. This has led to a series of initiatives around Women as retail customers, women entrepreneurs and women as distributors.
Just last week the Women@Distribution workshop with 24 female distributors from 7 countries across the globe, provided an opportunity to develop concrete, operational proposals for increasing gender diversity in the AXA distribution network.
International Women’s Day 2016
This year, International Women’s Day will be also celebrated with these new events:
- The Women Of Exception project, a way for all employees to thank the outstanding women who have helped or supported them or whom they admire – either privately by sending an e-Card or via social media using the #WomenOfException hashtag.
- The Purple Selfie Challenge, a contest in which employees take a selfie with a purple accessory and post the photo using the hashtags #PurpleSelfieChallenge and #PledgeforParity. The latter directly supports the International Women’s Day campaign.
