APPROACH FOR PROGRESS OF WOMEN WITHIN THE GROUP
This text, promoted during an internal communication campaign, lists the different areas where progress is required to develop gender equality within the SUEZ Group.
It constitutes the first step towards tackling discrimination within the company and a guarantee of the well-being and personal and professional development for women in the Group.
OBJECTIVES
Propose and help implement practical measures to improve the role of women at SUEZ by facilitating the integration and career development of women and by ensuring genuine equality when it comes to recognizing skills.
COMMITMENTS
Observatory on the role of women in the Group
The European working group, led by Communications and Sustainable Development Executive VP, Valérie Bernis, has the task of considering the role of women and men at SUEZ. At the start of 2007, the group decided to create an Observatory on the role of women as one of its main actions.
As a control structure, the Observatory will encourage and give impetus to the implementation of highly practical solutions which aim to reduce inequality between men and women in the Group by removing certain barriers resulting from behavioral and organizational prejudices. As a support structure for the long term, the Observatory is also responsible for gauging and then monitoring progress made in this area. And finally, as a structure for discussion, the Observatory will offer a forum for exchanging and developing its proposed actions, benchmarking them against best practices implemented in large European groups.
Following its creation in April 2007, the Observatory started work on its main tasks. It set up five committees to cover the chief areas where the working group noted that progress was required.
Each committee, with its own spokesperson, has now defined its working framework, outlined key actions that it intends to implement and listed its objectives aimed at creating a mixed workforce. They have thus drafted a route map for key actions aimed at breaking down the main organizational or cultural obstacles women face during their careers.
The five committees in the Observatory on the role of women address the following issues:
Committee 1: Encouraging women to move into management positions
Committee 2: Guiding women during the pivotal period between ages 30 and 40
Committee 3: Diversifying the positions open to women
Committee 4: Developing women's networks and setting up a mentoring system
Committee 5: Changing attitudes and operating methods
Download the Press file - Women within the SUEZ Group
