Our friends at Avon are passionate about the economic participation of women. As the world’s largest women’s network, Avon is committed to understanding the issues around this area and supporting women to overcome them.
They have commissioned research by Oxford Economics to undertake a global review of the latest and most influential academic studies and expert analyses and to bring these valuable insights together. They have also commissioned primary research with Populus and Good Business to dig deeper into women’s experiences in the specific areas of economic participation (as well as gender-based violence). Together, this work has inspired them to create the stand4her programme.
Stand4her is Avon’s global programme to improve the world for women by 2030. They want to reach 100m women every year through three key beliefs:
- We stand up for the freedom to earn on your own terms and in your own way
- We stand for the freedom to express yourself
- We stand for the freedom to live a safe and healthy life
Why does this chime so strongly with us?
Avon has highlighted a range of key tools in increasing women’s economic empowerment in the workplace, and access to education and lifelong learning is one of them. This is at the core of our mission at Digital Mums. We are passionate about the power of learning to unlock women’s potential.
Our Co-Founder Nikki contributed to this report, providing an expert viewpoint on the importance of being a lifelong learner. Keeping our skills relevant and up to date has never been so important. The world of work is changing at such a frantic pace that those not continuing to grow and develop will soon be left behind. The knowledge-based economy, the growing speed of technological changes and globalisation all mean that we need to be lifelong learners if we are to survive and thrive in the modern workplace.
But did you know that mothers are far less likely to participate in learning than other members of the population? Not only does this place them at a major disadvantage today, but seriously affects their future opportunities.
Figure 9, page 27 of the Avon stand4her report shows a worrying statistic for UK women. Out of the 15 countries surveyed, UK women were the least likely to have undertaken any training or self-development (self-funded or otherwise) or gained new skills or knowledge in the last three years. Just 50% of UK women had done so compared with 91% of women from the Philippines, 87% of women from Columbia and 84% of women from Peru.
You might think that this isn’t that big a deal. Three years isn’t a long time, right? Wrong. The pace of change means that over three years a huge amount will have changed. Every single year that passes opens up a gap between what you currently know, what has recently been developed/discovered and what you need to know. And the same goes for skills. Three years in this context is a significant time period. Big. HUGE.
You will hear lots more from us on this issue in 2019 but, for now, let’s focus on the Avon campaign. Digital Mums are passionate about the economic participation of mothers. We established Digital Mums with the primary purpose of reducing maternal unemployment. That’s why we stand behind the stand4her report from Avon and look forward to hearing more of their initiatives to support women back into the workplace all over the world. We’ll be sharing the report, raising awareness of the campaign and generally backing Avon in the fight for women.
Read more about the Avon stand4her campaign and access the report here.
