HeForShe and PwC launch online course for gender equality education

28 October 2016 Consultancy.uk

To support people to better understand the benefits of gender equality as well as the costs of inequality, HeForShe and PwC recently launched the ‘Building Gender IQ’ online course. The free, 35 minute programme involves video from expert lecturers as well as standalone activities aimed at developing a more critical approach to gender equality and wider community, work and home life participation.

Gender inequality remains a thorny issue, with considerable global barriers, invisible or otherwise, withholding women from a range of good lives. For the business world, interested in profitability, gender equality is a factor that affects business and economic performance, as highlighted by a recent Grant Thornton study and a systematic McKinsey & Company report. While efforts are being implanted across organisations to boost boardroom and executive gender parity, recent studies highlight that few women enter into key business decision executive functions.

One of the organisations launched to improve gender equality is HeForShe. The organisation was founded in 2014 to provide a systematic approach to transforming boys and men into agents of change in the movement towards gender equality. Created by UN Women, the organisation aims to develop solidarity between boys and men and global women’s movement initiative, by “crafting and implementing a shared vision of gender equality that will benefit all of humanity.”

PwC and HeForShe launch gender equality IQ building education programme

Accounting and consulting firm PwC is one of HeForShe's supporters. Dennis Nally, a Partner at the firm, was named an IMPACT 10x10x10 Champion* – reflecting the firm’s commitment to the programme and its dissemination across its organisation and globally. As part of their collaboration, the partners have launched an education programme to teach all people about the benefits of gender equality as well as the costs of inequality.

The programme is called ‘Building Gender IQ’, and provides participants with a 35 minute curriculum on the benefits of gender equality as well as the costs of inequality. The curriculum involves video-based expert lectures and individual activities, and supports the users’ critical thinking faculty to light the benefits of equality are not only for women, but for all of society. The course also aims to develop participants into advocates of equality in communities, the workplace and at home.

The joint development of the programme reflects the completion of one of the three key pillars of the firm’s IMPACT 10x10x10 Champion commitment. Bob Moritz, Chairman of PwC, adds, "We all have a role to play in making gender equality a reality. As a HeForShe IMPACT champion, we’ve developed a brief online course, ‘Building Gender IQ,’ to raise awareness of the impact of gender norms and stereotypes, the cost of gender inequality, and the benefits of gender equality for individuals and societies. I would encourage everyone to spread the word, take the course, and turn it into an asset that enables change.”

* IMPACT 10x10x10 was developed by HeForShe to engage 30 male leaders globally, from public and private institutions, focused on accelerating the world towards the UN Women’s ‘Planet 50 -50 by 2030’ vision for a gender equal world.