Launched in 2020, CEDAW for Companies was inspired by our previous work on The Cities for CEDAW campaign, a U.S.-based grassroots effort that provides tools and leadership to empower local women’s organizations and municipalities to effectively initiate CEDAW within their city, county, or state. Led by the Women’s Intercultural Network in partnership with The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights/The Leadership Conference Education Fund and the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New York, Cities for CEDAW proved when institutions and people come together, change is in order. Bringing CEDAW and other gender equality policies to companies is a way to bridge the international policy sphere with the private sector to ensure we are working partners in gender equality.

1. Enhance your D&I strategy, Environmental Social
Governance reporting, and Sustainable Development efforts
with this private sector approach to United Nations gender
equality policy.

2. Gender Equality is profit for
purpose.

3. An era calling
for change
Conversations around sustainable
development, diversity &
inclusion, and gender equality are
buzzing.

4. • D&I will become a business model and not only a
program.
• More Chief Diversity Officers.
• Focus beyond gender to intersectional focus.
• Unconscious bias trainings and focus.
• Gender identity policies.
• Diversity of political thought.
Predicted trends for 2020
McKinsey, Council for Inclusion

5. SDG 5: Gender Equality
Since the introduction of the Millennium
Development Goals in 2000, gender
equality became mainstream, becoming its
own Sustainable Development Goal.
Corporations are jumping on board with the
global push for enhanced equality.

6. Women in the Workplace
2019, McKinsey & Company
• Despite progress at senior levels, gender parity
remains out of reach.
• Companies are adding more women to the C-Suite and
in senior management.
• "Broken career ladder rung" when trying to promote to
manager level.
• Inclusive and unbiased hiring and promotions.

7. CEDAW Success Examples
*from UN member states
• Turkey changed laws to raise marriageable age to 17, allow women to keep maiden names,
work outside the home and keep their own wages without permission from their
husbands
• Honduras created policies to make agricultural training and loans available to women
farmers
• Austria amended policies for maternity protection and paternity leave
• Cambodia created a women’s ministry
• Canada created an institute to address health disparities between women and men
• Uganda created and funded programs to reduce domestic violence
• Israel allocated funding to mammograms
• Argentina developed a program to prevent teen pregnancy and care for teen mothers,
especially homeless teen mothers
• Botswana overturned a law giving citizenship to children of men married to foreigners
but not to children of women married to foreigners
• Germany, Guatemala, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United
Kingdom, and many other countries, improved maternity leave and child care for
women working outside the home

8. The What: CEDAW
Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against
Women
CEDAW contains 30 articles and
provisions defining the meaning of
discrimination against women and
establishes means for state parties to
make changes that will ensure
enhanced gender equality.
An international treaty adopted in 1979
by the United Nations General
Assembly. Described as an international
bill of rights for women, it was instituted
on September 3, 1981 and has been
ratified by 189 states.

9. The What: CEDAW
Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against
Women
• Political Participation
• Economic Participation
• Education
• Reproductive Health
• Civil Rights
• Access to opportunities

10. The What: CEDAW
Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against
Women
• Signatory
• Ratification
• Accession

11. Created for countries,
adapted for municipalities,
launched for companies.
Adopted by 189 member
states at United Nations with
formal CEDAW committee,
review processes, and for
use with country
constitutions.
Launched in 2013 at
meeting of the UN
Commission on the Status
of Women to bring CEDAW
to the local municipal level
for use in city governments
and policy.
Launched in 2020 after
Cities for CEDAW proved a
success with the goal to
involve corporate
governance in CEDAW
implementation.
UN Member State Level Cities for CEDAW CEDAW for Companies

12. Why integrate CEDAW?
Your vibe attracts your tribe.
Do your part to cooperate
towards gender equality
efforts that 189 UN member
states committed to since
1979 and municipalities and
governments globally.
CEDAW is tried and true,
tested and debated for 30
years, and backed by the
United Nations making it an
excellent benchmarking tool.
Create custom
benchmarking for internal
and external programs,
product development efforts,
employee development, and
more using CEDAW
provisions.
Association Credibility Accountability Social Responsibility
SDGs are a trend in
corporate governance.
CEDAW integrates with your
corporate social
responsibility reporting.

13. De Facto vs. De Jure Equality
Situations that are legally recognized.
Policies, procedures, laws are
examples. CEDAW evaluates these on
the basis of their ability to provide
equal access for both genders.
Situations not legally recognized but
that exist. These can be beliefs,
attitudes, and informal groups.
CEDAW evaluates these on how they
potentially limit gender equality and
perpetuate unconscious bias.
De Jure Equality De Facto Equality

14. Internal & External
CEDAW's 30 provisions are adaptable to internal policies and
external product offerings. Be creative with how you use it.
• Internal policies
• Employee resources
• Product development and offerings
• Programs for customers and employees

15. CEDAW Articles & Your
Company

16. CEDAW: Articles 1-6
Helps define discrimination
against women and to address
and encourage ways to fix “de
facto” discrimination.

17. CEDAW: Articles 7-9
Building gender equality in
public and private life.
For companies this focuses on
your board of governance,
committees, and employee
resource groups.

18. CEDAW: Articles 10 -14
Eliminate discrimination in health,
economic, social, and cultural life.
For companies this means
reviewing your health plan
offerings, economic offerings,
social participation, and company
culture.

19. CEDAW: Articles 10 -14
• Article 10: Education - Are women provided
equal training programs?
• Article 11: Employment - pay equality,
maternity leave policies, mentorship
opportunities
• Article 12: Health plan access
• Article 13: Financial and social life - equality
in financial offerings (outside of pay)

20. CEDAW: Articles 16 - 22
Article 17: established Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women (company will establish
a committee to review CEDAW policies. This can be an
existing group).
Article 18: Reporting obligation on CEDAW efforts.
Article 19-22: Functions of the committee are defined.

21. Becoming Party to CEDAW

22. CEDAW
3 Principles
Substantive Equality
Non- Discrimination
State Obligation/Company
Obligation

23. Substantive
Equality
• Formal: Review existing policies to
ensure no formal discrimination exists.
• Protectionist: Review policies to
ensure they are not “protectionist” by
removing women from participation for
fear of discrimination.
• Corrective: Aims to correct
environment that disadvantages
women.

24. Non-
Discrimination
• De Jure: Your company has a policy on
the books that decreases women's'
participation.
• De Facto: Your company has a culture
or values that limit women from
participating.
• Conducting an initial assessment review
is important to know where you stand.
Sometimes policies can be
contradictory.

25. State/Company
Obligation
• Countries ratify CEDAW
• Examine company policies to ensure they elevate
women
• Involve HR and legal
• Complaint and redress procedures
• Respect,protect, fulfill, promote
• Temporary special measures to ensure change and
attention to it.
• CEDAW normally favors laws, but in this case it will
be your policies.

26. SDG Action Manager
• SDG Action Manager allows you to track
your organization’s progress against the
SDGs.
• The tool provides analytical capabilities with
metrics you self report.
• A tool like this was needed for integrating
gender equality policy.

27. Here are the steps of how we will work together to build a custom solution for
your organization so you can use CEDAW.
The How: Implementing a CEDAW Procedure

28. Step 1: Initial Analysis
We’ll review the current status of your diversity & inclusion initiatives,
Sustainable Development Goal initiatives, and Environmental Social
Governance reporting and create an action plan for areas you’d like to
improve, build out, or add to. We also take into account the size of
your company, projected growth, and business markets to factor in
cultural implications. We’ll work together on:
• Executive oversight of current and future programs
• Gender analysis of women in your company
• Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) or internal committees
• Formation of a diversity & inclusion or gender equality internal
steering committee and advisory board
• Complaint handling procedures for instances involving gender
equality issues

29. Step 2: Create your Platform for Action
Here we will create a “Platform for Action” for your
company that lays out vision, goals, and a path,
including a stakeholder breakdown, toolkit resource,
and projected impacts on your business units/areas.
• CEDAW and your company vision
• Set up initial goals for improving programs
• Path for CEDAW initiatives
• Stakeholder breakdown
• Custom toolkit resource
• Projected business impacts
• ESG and SDG integration
• Draft reporting procedure
• Development and creation of gender equality initiatives and inclusion
practices.

30. Step 3: Build your Custom Toolkit
Depending on the size of your company, its
business areas, territories, and sectors, we will
build a custom toolkit for the scope of your
initiatives, including:
• Integration Matrix
• Custom program and initiative tracking tools
• Internal pledge managers
• Stakeholder matrix
• Policy review committees
• Gender and diversity analysis tools
• Steering committee development resources
• Additional resources provided by United Nations Global
Compact.

31. Step 4: Establish CEDAW Committee
CEDAW adoption requires that you establish a
committee to consistently review progress and
provide a place to address issues arising. The
committee is instrumental in the reporting
process and must approve all reports.
• Employee Resource Group
• Recommended at least one member from legal/policy
teams and one from Human Resources.
• Composed of diverse employees from all levels
• Internal pledge managers to review CEDAW
commitments
• De Jure team to review policy
• De Facto team to review culture
• Steering committee development resources

32. Step 5: Design & Implement Annual Reporting Procedure
For your company, we will set up a reporting process
and template to enable you to publish your successes.
The reporting will provide a summary and overview of
your team's efforts, making you a proactive leader in
ensuring global workforce gender equality.
• Identify issues
• Establish benchmarks/milestones for resolving
issues
• Establish analysis tools for progress
• Establish reporting format for ease of publishing
• How to market your successes with external
communications