Takeaways From the Last 2021 Unstereotype Alliance All-Members Meeting

Takeaways From the Last 2021 Unstereotype Alliance All-Members Meeting

On Tuesday 7 December, the last Unstereotype Alliance all-members meeting of the year took place virtually.

UAE National Chapter 1st Anniversary

Noha Hefny, Founder People of Impact and UN Women Senior Consultant, offered an overview of the celebrations for the 1st Anniversary of UAE National Chapter, which took place at Dubai EXPO 2020. The event reached a great share on social and traditional media both in English and Arabic.

One of the main outcomes was positioning emerging women leaders as authentic role models and providing a platform for sharing their experiences on unconscious bias and stereotypes in the workplace. Moreover, emphasis was put on the need for accelerated action by senior leadership and organizations on discrimination and best practices sharing, as well as the use of a data-centric approach in working on business cases.

#HereToBeHeard

Michele Oliver, Global VP Corporate Brand & Purpose at Mars, and Deputy Vice Chair of the Unstereotype Alliance presented the results of the #HereToBeHeard research.

Focused on the following question: ‘What needs to change so more women can reach their full potential?’l, the research started from an “unusual action”: listening. Instead of assuming the main discriminative behaviors at the workplace, researchers listened to different stakeholders focusing on three main countries: US, UK and Mexico, including people from all ethnic backgrounds, sexualities and professional roles.

Aiming to apply its “the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today” purpose, MARS is conducting research in order to drive change towards a more inclusive society. #HereToBeHeard campaign is first listening and learning campaign of what is planned to become a platform for gender equality (Full Potential Platform).

Participation was great: more than 10k women answered, bringing forward very emotional, well-reasoned and sometimes difficult-to-listen responses. As nearly as 70% of them quoted the term ‘men’, with one of the main outcome of the research being the need to lean into ‘man allyship programs’.

The three main responses have been “An end to systemic discrimination and harmful gender stereotypes (80%), “equal career opportunities” (79%) and “more decision making power” (65%).

Visit mars.com/heretobeheard to download the report

2021 Highlights  & 2022 Plans

Sthu Zungu-Noel, UN Women Unstereotype Alliance National Expansion Program Lead, regrouped the main highlights of 2021. Among these the first UK Chapter anniversary, the +76% membership growth, and several landmark research reports and campaign launches.