International Women’s Day
Today is International Women’s Day, a United Nation cause that has generated massive support to promote and protect the equal rights of women globally. At H&M we seek to ensure equality of opportunity throughout the company. In 2011, 80% of our total workforce was women and 72% of the management positions were held by women. Our board is another example, where 50% of the members are women.
The textile industry in general employs mainly women. At H&M we want our social sustainability work to be clearly linked to our business and society’s needs. That is also why we want to contribute to employment and education among women and youth. To celebrate International Women’s Day, I’d like to share some of our projects to promote and protect the equal rights of women.
In Tamil Nadu in India, H&M is running the project All for Children in collaboration with UNICEF. All for Children address exploitation of children, with a special focus on girls. The project aims to promote children’s rights to health, nutrition, education and protection against abuse and exploitation. In addition, there are activities to ensure health and nutritional services of pregnant women, and their children up to three years old.
HERproject (Health Enables Return project) in Indonesia works to improve the health of female workers through health education programs. They often suffer from anemia, inadequate pre and post natal care, sexual violence and exposure to infections and illness. Conditions that lower women’s quality of life and limit their ability to care for their families. The aim is to support women to better health and health behavior, and from a business point of view; improve morale, lower absence and increase productivity.
To sum up, our experience from developing countries tells us that, by helping a woman you often help a family. Our operations have an impact and we will continue to use our influence to promote better social conditions to increase the quality of life for women all over the world.
Helena Helmersson is our Head of Sustainability. Opinions expressed are her personal views and do not necessarily represent the official views of H&M. Do you have questions or feedback? Please click here.