American company Gap unveils 2025 goals to drive women's empowerment

16 Mar '21

3 min read

Pic: GAP

As part of celebrating Women’s History Month, American brand, Gap, is highlighting the significant milestone that over 800,000 women and girls have completed the P.A.C.E. (Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement) programme. Gap’s P.A.C.E. programme was founded in 2007 on the belief that all women deserve the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Today, the programme is on track to achieve the ambitious goal of reaching 1 million individuals by 2022, operating in communities and factories in 17 countries where our clothes are made. Participants in the P.A.C.E. curriculum often say that the life skills taught in the coursework have an immediate and tangible positive impact on their lives, according to Gap.

Building on the momentum and success of P.A.C.E., Gap is joining forces with Business for Social Responsibility, ILO-IFC Better Work, and CARE to launch Empower@Work. This shared platform leverages its knowledge, skills, and networks to drive collective action to benefit women workers and gender equity in global supply chains. Empower@Work will focus on building and deploying sustainable, systemic, and scalable programmes that promote gender equity in global supply chains, Gap said in a media statement.

Gap is announcing its broader investment strategy in women’s empowerment, committing that by 2025, 100 per cent of its strategic factories will be participating in Empower@Work. Athleta and Gap brand have also committed that 100 per cent of their factories will be participating in Empower@Work by 2025. Around 100 per cent of its strategic factories have achieved gender parity at the supervisor level. Around 100 per cent of workers employed in its strategic factories will have their voices heard through gender-equitable workplace committees. 100 per cent of its factories will have prevention and response management systems and training to address gender-based violence, Gap said.

These goals build on Gap’s longstanding collaboration with expert stakeholders to support gender equity in the apparel supply chain and are supported by Gap Supplier Sustainability programs. Gap’s goal of achieving gender equity at the supervisor level in all of its strategic factories will be driven by its Supervisory Skills Training programme. Similarly, its goal of having workers’ voices being heard through gender-equitable and representative workplace committees will be managed through its Workplace Cooperation programme. Both programmes were developed in partnership with ILO-IFC Better Work.

“Gap is proud to be a founding member of Empower@Work, recognising the opportunity it presents to reach millions of women with proven programming and tools, they can use to uplift themselves and their families for generations to come. To reinforce this commitment, Athleta and Gap brand are taking steps to have all the factories from which they source participate in Empower@Work women’s empowerment training by 2025,” Mary Beth Laughton, president and CEO, Athleta said in a statement.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (GK)

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