Unlocking Opportunities for Women
Mars ‘Full Potential’ Platform to Support Equal Opportunities for Women
In the world we want tomorrow, society is inclusive. And women are reaching their Full Potential. That’s why creating equal opportunities for women in our workplaces, in the marketplace and in communities where we source raw materials is important.
Whether in the boardroom, in a retail shop or on the farm, the evidence is clear that unlocking opportunities for women bolsters communities, drives resilience and enhances value. Numerous studies demonstrate that enabling greater participation of women in businesses, communities and economies delivers measurable benefits(Opens a new window) for business, the economy, and society, including:
- In the workplace, business teams with roughly equal gender representation outperform male-dominated teams(Opens a new window) on sales and profits, gender-diverse teams make better business decisions(Opens a new window).
- In sourcing communities, women carry out nearly half the labor(Opens a new window) on small-scale farms while carrying out the majority of unpaid labor(Opens a new window) such as collecting firewood, preparing meals, and caring for children and the elderly. When gender equality increases, food security increases, and tackling gender inequality can also multiply the role women play(Opens a new window) in driving sustainable agricultural practices.
- In the marketplace, women create and control more than a quarter of the world’s wealth — estimated at USD $20 trillion. More than 70% of brand purchasing decisions are made by women, and in emerging markets, research found that women operate more than 70% of the small-scale businesses where consumer goods are sold.
Women still face a range of barriers to reaching their full potential. The World Economic Forum projects that the time to close the gender parity gap is now 132 years(Opens a new window), up from 100 years pre-pandemic.
We need greater focus toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal No. 5(Opens a new window) - Achieving Gender Equality & Empowering All Women and Girls, and a significant step up in collective efforts across workplaces, communities and the marketplace.
The Full Potential Platform
At Mars, we’re taking action to address the barriers women face — because equal opportunities for women fuel our ability to grow and thrive as a business and enables women across our value chain to reach their Full Potential. This work advances our Purpose, reinforces the Five Principles(Opens a new window), contributes to our Inclusion & Diversity(Opens a new window) goals and drives us toward our Sustainable in a Generation Plan(Opens a new window) ambitions.
Women have long played a powerful role in our history as a family-owned, privately held business, and their success is critical to our shared future. We believe everyone deserves the opportunity to reach their Full Potential, and this platform outlines our actions to support equal opportunities for women across our workplaces, sourcing communities and the marketplace.
In our workplaces, we are taking action with policies and practices to improve opportunities and Associate benefits while ensuring we continue to pay Associates fairly. For example, we are:
- Committed to ensuring that we have Associates and leaders with a wide range of life experiences, backgrounds, skills and ways of thinking, which are essential to serving the different markets in which we operate.
- Remain committed to equal pay for male and female Associates across our global businesses. We continue to review our pay practices to ensure we pay our Associates fairly, as part of our commitment to ensuring an inclusive environment that attracts and retains the strongest talent.
- Improving a range of family support benefits, including enhanced parental leave in the U.S. and U.K., as well as actively exploring ways to enhance parental leave support globally.
- Supporting leadership development through programs that reach leaders at all levels – emerging and senior talents.
- Supporting our Associate Resource Groups, including our Women & Allies ARG, which are open to all Associates, and providing resources to formalize governance as well as strengthen operations and cultural impact.
In communities where we source raw materials, we’re investing with a range of partners in long-term approaches to bolster women’s economic empowerment and access to opportunity:
- We continue our long-term partnership with CARE through Women for Change (W4C). Launched in 2016, Women for Change was created in collaboration with CARE International to empower women in cocoa-growing communities and support their professional and economic growth using the Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) model. This model, originally implemented in Côte d'Ivoire, has proven to be effective in promoting savings and providing access to small loans.
- Focusing on women’s social and economic empowerment through our Cocoa for Generations strategy(Opens a new window) and our Protecting Children Action Plan(Opens a new window). Together with The Royal Tropical Institute of the Netherlands(Opens a new window), we published an Empathy Report(Opens a new window) with new insights on empowerment opportunities for women and girls in cocoa communities.
- Investing in initiatives that include empowering women in coconut, vanilla and shea sourcing communities with the Livelihoods Fund for Family Farming(Opens a new window). These programs have collaborated with women to advance regenerative agriculture practices.
- Supporting women in mint communities in India, who haveloans and grants, as well as training on rights, financial literacy, and income opportunities.
In the marketplace where our goods and services are advertised and sold, we’re also taking action by:
- Depicting men and women equally in advertising, such as showing each working and in leadership roles, and other situations such as shopping and cooking. We review our advertising annually to identify and reduce gender bias, partnering with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media(Opens a new window). We are using these insights to identify where we can improve, as well as track our performance over time.
- Taking action with our brands, bringing attention to topics such as motherhood, and intersectional representation. Ben’s Original™(Opens a new window) is inviting everyone around the table, featuring single mothers and their families as well as challenging norms such as who is doing the cooking. In the U.K., MALTESERS® is shining light on maternal mental health through their #TheMassiveOvershare(Opens a new window) #LoveBeatsLikes campaigns with more than 270,000 visits to the support website for information and resources to date. DOVE®/GALAXY®(Opens a new window) is championing women’s empowerment through an anthem written and performed by women in Middle East & Africa and invited a majority female team to develop and produce its campaign in China.
