Photo: British actress and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson introduces the HeForShe campaign at United Nations headquarters in New York on September 20, 2014. (UN Women/Simon Luethi)
Tupperware Brands Corp. Chairman and CEO Rick Goings is calling on his fellow business leaders to take bold, decisive steps toward achieving gender equality throughout their organizations.
Goings addressed women’s economic empowerment in a piece for the Huffington Post, following an announcement that the Tupperware executive will take a leading role in IMPACT 10x10x10, the pilot initiative of UN Women’s HeForShe campaign. IMPACT 10x10x10 is taking a top-down approach to change by enlisting leaders—10 heads of state, 10 CEOs and 10 university presidents—committed to advancing gender equality.
“Business cannot reach its full potential if we do not advocate to unleash the power of women and strive as male leaders to open doors for women to enter into positions of power,” Goings wrote of Tupperware’s role as an IMPACT Champion. “Shackling women’s potential by allowing their talents to be unrecognized, stunted, thwarted and even beat out of them is not a way to grow a society that can thrive.”
Goings is among the first five businessmen and university presidents to join the initiative. Each company signs the Women’s Empowerment Principles and implements No. 7: to measure and publicly report on progress to achieve gender equality.
Noting that Tupperware’s entire direct selling model focuses on empowering women, who make up the majority of its salesforce, Goings said the kitchenware company will further its efforts by conducting an internal gender audit on its policies, ensuring more women are sponsored by male leaders to reach their full potential, and attaining 50/50 equality in management.
