Save the Children Ranks Second Highest for Gender Equality on List of 800 U.S. Organizations

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (August 23, 2021) — Gender Fair^®, the world’s first consumer rating system for gender equality, announced today that global humanitarian organization Save the Children is in the 99^th percentile of consumer facing companies for gender fairness. That makes the non-profit the second highest scoring organization on Gender Fair’s Index of 800 leading consumer companies. Only Procter & Gamble scores slightly higher.

Gender Fair^® reviews and measures a company’s gender metrics across five categories – leadership, employee policies, advertising, diversity reporting and philanthropy/purpose – and then calculates a gender equity score. Save the Children was guided by Gender Fair’s measurement system and benchmarks, improving its performance to receive an A grade with perfect scores in leadership, advertising, diversity reporting and purpose.

“We were delighted to be the first non-profit to be certified Gender Fair in 2020, but we weren’t satisfied,” said Debbie Pollock-Berry, Chief Human Resources Officer. “Based on feedback from Gender Fair® and input from our own employees, we made changes and are thrilled to have achieved a near perfect score in 2021. We increased our parental leave, fostered greater diversity on our Board of Trustees and continued to narrow our gender pay gap down to one percent. Gender equity is a priority for Save the Children in our work with children and communities across the globe, and we are proud to stand by these principles for our workforce as well.”

“We are thrilled to see how Save the Children was able to continue its progress on gender equality both inside and outside its organization,” said Gender Fair’s CEO Johanna Zeilstra. “In addition to the changes listed above, their new effort to buy from diverse suppliers is a real tangible way to close the racial and gender wealth gap.”

As well as informing people on which brands and organizations are progressing on gender equality, the Gender Fair’s measurement system is designed to help organizations move the needle. Save the Children is the perfect use case.

Added Zeilstra, “Our goal is that Gender Fair’s methodology will help all organizations improve on equality and diversity. These holistic, yet simple metrics allow companies to measure their performance and identify where they need to improve to match the current marketplace. Our new automated assessment does so quickly and confidentially.”

Gender Fair’s certification is based on a proprietary methodology derived from the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles. Though most consumers (84%) expect companies to support women’s rights, less only 10% of major companies meet the Gender Fair standards.

Save the Children works to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm, both in the United States and around the world. The organization has an equal number of males and females on both its Board and Senior Leadership Team; 80% of Save the Children’s 1,320 employees in the U.S. are female, and 76% of its managers are women.

Save the Children is part of an elite roster of Gender Fair-certified organizations that includes Eli Lilly, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Mastercard, Microsoft and Procter & Gamble.