“Inequalities are unfair on the individuals subjected to them but are also harmful to society as a whole. Women account for half of the world’s population and no country can afford to overlook that talent. Together we are stronger, and a fairer society improves us all.”
This was the message from Mapfre chairman and CEO, Antonio Huertas, when he participated in the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit, where over 170 global companies share their success strategies and best practices for accelerating gender equality in businesses.
Mapfre is participating in the United Nations Global Compact for sustainable development Target Gender Equality programme, aimed at meeting the gender equality goal for 2020–2021, particularly in terms of promoting women’s leadership in business and economics.
By participating, the multinational contributes further to the fifth Sustainable Development Goal (Equal Opportunities), which demands equal representation, participation and leadership for women in businesses worldwide. Mapfre also had the opportunity to be part of a select group of companies that will share their work and experience to make progress on equal opportunities, exchanging knowledge, results and experiences.
One of the messages that Huertas conveyed was that: “Mapfre believes in equality, and Target Gender Equality, along with the United Nations’ Women’s Empowerment Principles, forms a good benchmark for achieving it.”
Women fill 40 per cent of management positions.
With employees in over 40 countries, Mapfre has had a strong ethical and social commitment as a company for 90 years. This is the belief of Mapfre’s chairman and CEO, who emphasised that “business cannot exist without ethics”, and that companies are “responsible” for leading the equality objective, an “achievable challenge” that they are working “tirelessly” to meet.
Mapfre is a good example of this: 55 per cent of its workforce is female, and female talent is promoted throughout the organisational structure.
In 2019, the company fulfilled its public commitment that at least 40 per cent of management positions would be filled by women. For 2021, a public commitment has been made to ensure that women fill at least 45 per cent of annual vacancies for management positions.
During his speech at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit, Huertas emphasised the need to “increase visibility of women’s leadership to serve as a stimulus to younger female workers”, and stressed that “men are part of the solution and we must drive equality together”.
Mapfre’s commitment to equality is part of its Sustainability Plan 2019-2021, which aims to position Mapfre as a benchmark for transparency, sustainability and trust, whereby clients, employees and society in general associate the company with a commitment to sustainable development, and that shareholders and investors share their vision of medium- and long-term value creation.
As a result of its commitment to equality and the contribution to the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, Mapfre has recently adopted the Women’s Empowerment Principles, established by UN Women, the UN organisation dedicated to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, which have so far been adopted by 3,139 companies from around the world.