Gender Equality

 

Gender Equality

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Gender commitments

At Vodafone, we’re committed to making the world a fairer, more equal place for women. Here’s how we’re doing our bit to close the gender gap, through the power of technology:

 

Best employer for women by 2025

Connect 50 million women

living in emerging markets

 

Provide online education

to 3 million young refugees by 2020

1000 ReConnects

bringing 1000 people back to work from a career break

40% of Vodafone management roles

to be held by women by 2030

#ChangeTheFace

launched on International Women’s Day in 2020, will help us boost diversity in the technology sector

Putting gender firmly on the agenda

By empowering women and promoting gender equality, we can help communities, economies and businesses, including our own, to thrive. Here are some of the ways we’re working to redress the gender balance here at Vodafone, and beyond.

  • Domestic Violence and Abuse

    In 2019, we were the first global company to launch a new HR policy for victims of domestic violence and abuse. Any employee who has faced abuse will have access to up to 10 days’ additional “safe leave”, giving them the time and support they need to manage their situation.

     

     

  • Maternity Policy

    Our pioneering global maternity policy is a cornerstone of our flexible working offer. Available across 30 countries, it gives women at least 16 weeks of fully paid maternity leave and, when they return, a 30-hour week on full pay. In addition, any employee whose partner is having a baby, adopts a child or becomes a parent through surrogacy will have the flexibility to take up to 16 weeks paid leave at any time during the first 18 months.

     

Reconnect (Global Returners Programme)

Initially aimed at women, our ReConnect programme helps people of all backgrounds return to the workplace after a career break – and to do so with confidence. As well as offering full-time or flexible hours, we offer development and training opportunities to help returners make new professional connections and refresh their skills.

  • International Women’s Week

    International Women's Week is a chance for us to celebrate all the amazing women who work at Vodafone. We run various events and initiatives, starting with an annual global webinar and ending with a celebration of the most outstanding Women in Red.

Code Like A Girl

We’re proud to be the face of the world’s furthest-reaching girls coding programme. By offering coding training to thousands of girls aged 14-18 across 26 countries, we’ve been playing our part in making technology, and technology careers, far more accessible to the next generation of female leaders.

 

 

  • HeForShe

    HeForShe is a UN Women movement that invites men and women from across the globe to stand together for gender equality. Chosen to be one of the 10 Corporate Impact Champions, we’ve already delivered on our commitment to increase representation of women in leadership to 30% by 2020 – our target is now 40% by 2030. We’re also expanding access to mobile as a tool for female empowerment and bringing mobile education to refugee girls in the countries where we operate.