Our Commitment to Championing Women in the UK & Ireland
An International Women’s Day Op-Ed by Sue Fox, Senior Vice President/ General Manager, The Estée Lauder Companies UK & Ireland
Company Feature, 8 Mar 2021
Challenging the status quo wasn’t something that our founder, Mrs Estée Lauder, was afraid of. A trailblazer in every sense of the word, at a time when the majority of women were expected to stay at home, she dared to dream that anything was possible if you had the guts to go for it. This challenger spirit still lives on in the company that she created today.
That’s why the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day ‘Choose to Challenge’ really strikes a chord with me, because it speaks to the fearless persistence and courage that remains very much ingrained in our culture.
Sue Fox, Senior Vice President/General Manager, The Estée Lauder Companies UK & Ireland
Challenging ourselves and others to ensure all women everywhere have access to equal opportunities was at the heart of our UK & Ireland International Women’s Day event last week. Together with the inspiring Dame Karen Pierce, Britain’s Ambassador to the United States, and changemaker Farrah Storr, Editor in Chief of ELLE UK, we discussed the ways in which we can all continue to champion and unite women of all different ages, races, cultures and backgrounds.
As a company, our commitment to celebrating and supporting women is unwavering. Today, it’s a source of personal pride that 75% of our leadership team and 86% of our workforce at The Estée Lauder Companies UK & Ireland are women. I’m also proud that almost 64% of our supply chain employees are female – an impressive achievement when you consider that the industry average in the UK is just 13%. Across our organisation, talented and dynamic women are leading from every chair.
We know that investing in skills is key to promoting gender equality. That’s why we have an ongoing commitment to learning; currently, there are almost 90 female apprentices enrolled on our ELC Elevates Programme and more of the next generation of talent will soon be joining us through the UK government’s new Kickstart scheme.
Young Women's Trust
But we recognise that there is still much work to be done, particularly in the wake of Covid-19. Certainly, there’s no denying the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on women, girls and diverse communities. We are focusing our social responsibility efforts on these areas, as you will read further in the mail.
As Sara Moss, Vice Chairman, The Estée Lauder Companies, writes today, as a global company “our aim is to help women and girls worldwide acquire the necessary tools and skills, with an emphasis on life and leadership skills, to become healthy and productive adults, to effect lasting change and break the cycle of poverty.”
Sara goes on to explain that it is for these reasons that last year our company joined the United Nations Foundation 5 for 5 Campaign, developing a set of commitments to advance Sustainable Development Goal 5 – gender equality – by addressing equality of leadership, equality of opportunity and equality of access to health and education for all women.
Today, we are redoubling our efforts to support women and girls’ advancement, both within our business and in the communities where we live, work and source. In response to the pandemic, we launched the ELC Cares Employee Relief Fund, which has global reach, and are continuously enhancing our Family Benefits programme. Employees now have access to Bright Horizons Emergency Back-Up Care and Additional Family Supports, designed to help when care arrangements for children or adult dependents are not available when emergency cover is required. We’re also working to support all women through the expansion of our UK & Ireland Women’s Leadership Network and foster a company culture of inclusion and diversity, including through mandatory unconscious bias training for all employees.
Locally in the UK, we support programmes that prepare girls and young women to find work through education, training and apprenticeships. Most recently, we pledged a quarter of a million pounds to help fund Young Women’s Trust's Work It Out programme and The Prince’s Trust’s Women Supporting Women initiative. These grants will champion the career advancement of more than 1,000 disadvantaged young women across the country and are part of our ongoing commitment to improving equality of access. Right now, through our many partnerships, we continue to support children’s literacy, develop their self-empowerment and life skills and are working to address and eradicate female-genital mutilation, honour-based violence and hygiene poverty.
Of course, this is only possible with the ongoing support of our employees, customers and partners. Since 2019, we’ve donated tens of thousands of personal care and hygiene essentials to Beauty Banks, with our ELC UK & Ireland volunteers taking part in the charity’s annual Christmas gift boxing. Bobbi Brown Cosmetic’s Pretty Powerful Campaign, which supports Smart Works, has raised in excess of £550,000 since 2013, funding eight centres that offer career training to young women across the UK. Last year, Pretty Powerful partnered with She’s the First, a global charity that finds, funds and supports solutions to educate and empower girls and build up communities where they can flourish.
At ELC, we don’t shy away from challenges; we embrace them. Times might have changed since our pioneering founder started this business, but if there was ever a moment to invoke her challenger spirit to lift up women everywhere and make their voices heard, it’s now.
After all, as Mrs Lauder once said: “I believe that potential is unlimited – success depends on daring to act on dreams.” Together, let’s create opportunities that ensure women not only keep dreaming but acting, too.
