Over 60 Stock Exchanges Around the World to Ring the Bell for Gender Equality

NEW YORK, March 8, 2018 /3BL Media/ - In celebration of International Women’s Day, over 60 stock exchanges around the world are joining the United Nations Global Compact, Global Compact Local Networks and their partners to host bell ringing ceremonies in support of gender equality. Held throughout March, these bell-ringing events aim to raise awareness about the business case for women’s economic empowerment and underscore opportunities for the private sector to advance gender equality and sustainable development.  

The campaign kicked off in New York on 7 March with the first closing bell at Nasdaq, where UN Global Compact CEO & Executive Director Lise Kingo provided remarks. Commenting on the central role gender equality plays in driving the global economy, she posed a challenge to the audience:

“What if all stock exchanges sign up to the Women’s Empowerment Principles, and what if they began to ask their companies to report on the WEPs, and what if they began to rank their companies according to their performance on the Seven WEPs Principles?”

Each of the “Ring the Bell for Gender Equality” events around the world encourages participants to scale-up efforts to improve gender equality in their markets by first adopting the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs). Other critical actions include improving diversity in senior management and on the board of directors, enacting more gender-friendly policies, developing a gender-themed investment product and improving transparency on gender policies and practices.

The gender equality bells will ring next at the opening of IEX, followed by the closing bell at NYSE on 9 March.

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About the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs)

The Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) is a joint initiative between the UN Global Compact and UN Women that act as an integrated approach to invoke transformative change. The WEPs provides a framework for business to advance women’s empowerment and elaborate the gender dimension of corporate sustainability. To date, nearly 1,900 business leaders have endorsed the WEPs, signalling their support for equality between men and women and the guidance provided by the Principles.

About Ring the Bell for Gender Equality

“Ring the Bell for Gender Equality” is a partnership of the UN Global Compact, together with UN Women, the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, IFC, Women in ETFs and the World Federation of Exchanges that aims to have exchanges across the globe ring their market opening or closing bell to draw attention to the critical role business and markets can and must play in closing the gender inequality gap.

About the United Nations Global Compact

The United Nations Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and to take action in support of UN goals and issues embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals. The UN Global Compact is a leadership platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible corporate practices. Launched in 2000, it is the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world, with more than 9,500 companies and 3,000 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries, and more than 70 Local Networks.