Dove and Dove Men+Care accelerate action towards unlocking the power of gender equality
Leading Unilever brands announce new initiatives at Women Deliver 2019 Conference
VANCOUVER, June 5, 2019 /CNW/ - At this year's Women Deliver Conference – the world's largest conference on gender equality and the health, rights and wellbeing of girls and women – leading Unilever brands Dove and Dove Men+Care are demonstrating how they are taking accelerated action towards unlocking the power of gender equality, driving progress and change through a number of new initiatives.
Empowering women and girls is one of the most effective ways to accelerate sustainable development and unlock economic growth.1 However, despite being a fundamental human right and a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world, gender equality remains hundreds of years away, in many cases thanks to harmful norms and stereotypes, including unconscious bias.
Recognizing its responsibility and ability to drive change, Unilever is taking action to address these harmful norms and stereotypes within its organization, across its entire value chain, and critically, by how it acts in the world through its brands and partners.
"Working in partnership with others will enable us to drive greater change, to more people, faster – to accelerate progress towards an inclusive, unstereotyped, gender equal world." – Alan Jope, CEO, Unilever.
Unlocking the power of self-esteem to enable young people, especially girls, to realize their full potential: The Dove Self-Esteem Project and UNICEF
Since 2004, the Dove Self-Esteem Project has been working to unstereotype appearance ideals, empowering more than 35 million young people, especially girls, in 140 countries. This makes Dove the largest provider of education in self-esteem and body confidence globally. Today, the Dove Self-Esteem Project announces a new partnership with UNICEF, the world's leading children's organization, to help 10 million young people, especially girls, gain better self-esteem and body confidence by 2022.
Self-esteem and body confidence education is a foundational life skill that empowers young girls to stand up for their rights and make their own decisions. Dove's research alongside leading experts shows that over half the world's girls do not have high body esteem, causing 8 in 10 to opt out of important life activities and 7 in 10 to put their health at risk and disengage in the classroom.2
This new partnership will see Dove and UNICEF adapt modules on self-esteem and body confidence taken from the Dove Self-Esteem Project and include them in UNICEF programs, which teach young people in the developing world, especially girls, essential life skills. The three-year collaboration brings together the specialized skills, experience and resources of these two global organizations, both of which are leaders in their fields, and will reach young people aged 10 to 18 in Brazil, India and Indonesia.
"Young people are some of the world's best advocates, creators, and thinkers. Yet, feelings of disempowerment, low self-esteem, and a lack of confidence too often prevent them, especially young girls, from speaking out, standing up for what they believe in and reaching their full potential," says UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. "Through our new partnership with the Dove Self-Esteem Project, we are hoping to change that."
Unlocking the power of paternity leave to give men expanded opportunities to care: Dove Men+Care and Promundo
Dove Men+Care, in partnership with global gender justice organization Promundo, is launching new proprietary research and an accompanying global white paper, which looks at the impact of paternity leave on gender equality and the many benefits that employers, parents and society as a whole get when men are involved caregivers and have greater access to paid leave.
Globally, women spend significantly more time than men – sometimes up to ten times as much – on unpaid care, volunteer, and domestic work. The existence of a paternity leave policy alongside the encouragement of men to be involved caregivers is a proven solution to support the redistribution of unpaid care work, a significant enabler of gender equality. New research across seven countries (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, UK, and US) finds that 85 percent3 of fathers say that they would be willing to do anything to be very involved in the early weeks and months of caring for their newly born or adopted child, yet face significant barriers in doing so:
- Fewer than half of the world's countries offer any legally protected, paid paternity leave.
- Less than 50% of fathers took as much time as their country's policy allowed.
- 66% of men are bothered by negative portrayals of fathers in the media, often evoking ideas of incompetence or apathy to care.3
- 43% of men admitted they felt they had missed important events in their child's life due to work commitments.3
Dove Men+Care's global white paper Unleashing Men's Power To Care Through Paternity Leave builds on the findings of State of the World's Fathers – a biennial study examining global issues surrounding care work – produced by Promundo, which explores the actions required to unstereotype and provide expanded opportunities for men's care, and to advance gender equality. This includes improving access to and uptake of paid paternity leave globally.
"Rarely do we have a policy opportunity that pays forward in so many ways for so many people. Universally available, equitable, paid paternity leave – combined with support for fathers to take it – empowers women, helps children thrive, leads to a happier workforce and enhances the well-being of couples. The research, along with the stories of so many families and fathers, confirms again and again that paternity leave more than pays for itself in the benefits it generates." – Gary Barker, President and CEO, Promundo.
In addition, Dove Men+Care and Promundo will launch the Paternity Leave Corporate Task Force, a member-led and owned alliance that aims to identify, promote and bring to scale commercially and societally sustainable solutions that will result in improved access and uptake of paternity leave for all men. The Task Force brings together progressive companies under one vision: their aspiration to help create a world in which dads are enabled and empowered to take paternity leave, so the benefits of men's care and greater gender equality are felt at home, at work and in society more widely.
The purpose of the Task Force is to provide more dads with the opportunity to take paid paternity leave, by promoting the adoption of supportive employer policies and by helping to dismantle workplace cultural barriers and restrictive societal norms that hinder uptake. Its ambition is to drive both short and long-term action to accelerate progress in bringing the benefits of paternity leave to all – a significant enabler of UN SDG 5. More information about the Paternity Leave Corporate Task Force can be found here. Interested parties and organizations can contact the Task Force Secretariat to find out more.
Read the full Dove Men+Care white paper here: stateoftheworldsfathers.org
Join the conversation online:
Instagram: @dove Twitter: @Dove #PowerofSelfEsteem #ConfidentGirl
Instagram: @dovemencare Twitter: @DoveMenCare #PowerofPaternityLeave #DadsDo
Editors Notes:
UNICEF does not endorse any company, brand, product or service.
About UNICEF and Unilever partnership
The partnership between UNICEF and the Dove Self-Esteem Project is the latest in a series of collaborations between UNICEF and Dove's parent company Unilever. UNICEF has partnered with Unilever brands Domestos, Signal, Persil and Lifebuoy, and is also collaborating directly with Unilever on a number of initiatives aimed at driving transformational change for communities and children around the world.
About Dove
Dove started its life in 1957 in the US, with launch of the Beauty Bar, with its patented blend of mild cleansers and ¼ moisturizing cream. Dove's heritage is based on moisturization – proof not promises grew Dove from a Beauty Bar into one of the world's most beloved beauty brands.
Women have always been our inspiration and since the beginning, we have been wholly committed to providing superior care to all women and to championing real beauty in our advertising. Dove believes that beauty is for everyone. That beauty should be a source of confidence and not anxiety. Dove's mission is to inspire women everywhere to develop a positive relationship with the way they look and realize their personal potential for beauty.
For 60 years, Dove has been committed to broadening the narrow definition of beauty in the work they do. With the 'Dove Real Beauty Pledge,' Dove vows to:
- Portray women with honesty, diversity and respect. We feature women of different ages, sizes, ethnicities, hair colour, type and style.
- Portray women as they are in real life, with zero digital distortion and all images approved by the women they feature.
- Help young people build body confidence and self-esteem through the Dove Self-Esteem Project, the biggest provider of self-esteem education in the world.
About the Dove Self-Esteem Project
Dove as a brand is committed to make a positive experience of beauty universally accessible to every woman. The Dove Self-Esteem Project (2004), helps the young people of tomorrow develop a positive relationship with the way they look so they are not held back by appearance-related concerns and anxiety and can realise their full potential.
Working with leading psychologists and body image experts, the Project provides evidence-based and academically validated educational tools and resources to parents, teachers and youth leaders around the world. So far, we've reached the lives of over 35 million young people across 140 countries, making the Dove Self-Esteem Project the largest providers of body confidence education in the world. selfesteem.dove.com
About UNICEF
UNICEF works in some of the world's toughest places, to reach the world's most disadvantaged children. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone. For more information about UNICEF and its work for children, visit www.unicef.org.
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About Dove Men+Care
Since launch in 2010, Dove Men+Care has championed an inclusive vision of masculinity, expanding opportunities to care, and what it means to be a man and a father in today's world. It is our continued belief that care is the best of a man, because when men care for themselves and others, there is a positive impact on them and society.
That's why Dove Men+Care is championing paternity leave globally. We want to give men greater opportunities and access to care, and the freedom to choose the best way to do so for themselves and those around them. So that every dad gets the chance to care for the people who matter most. We are doing this by:
Celebrating, valuing and appreciating men in their role as involved caregivers to encourage and support access and uptake to paternity leave, to include:
- Conducting and releasing global research to understand the barriers and opportunities relating to paternity leave globally.
- Launching our Pledge for Paternity Leave in the US earlier this year in partnership with Alexis Ohanian. A $1 million dollar fund was made available to support new or expectant dads whose current circumstances mean they aren't able to take paternity leave. Our ambition is to expand this pledge globally in line with local needs to enable everyone to support the movement for paid leave.
Advocating for corporate cultural and policy change, to include:
- The Dove Men+Care Global Paternity Leave Standard gives all fathers at Unilever a minimum of three weeks' paid leave, rolling out globally by the end of 2019.
- Launching the Paternity Leave Corporate Taskforce, partnering with progressive companies to drive the structural, policy and cultural changes required to make paternity leave more accessible.
Creating valuable resources to support dads and help them take positive action in their own lives regarding paternity leave:
- Launching a digital Paternity Leave Resources hub on dove.com with resources for dads and their networks.
- We are also exploring partnership opportunities with like-minded companies and organizations such as UNICEF, to expand our ability to support dads in caregiving roles.
About Promundo
Promundo is a global leader in promoting gender justice. It believes that working with men and boys to transform harmful gender norms and unequal power dynamics is a critical part of the solution to achieving gender equality. For the empowerment of women and girls to continue advancing, men and boys must see themselves as partners in the process.
1 World Economic Forum Global Gender Report 2018 |
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2 The 2017 Dove Global Girls Beauty and Confidence Report |
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3 The multi-country average reflects calculations that give equal weight to each respondent in each subcategory (i.e. men, women, fathers, mothers), regardless of country. |
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SOURCE Unilever Canada
Nora Hickey, [email protected], 1.416.850.0679
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