M/F diversity

We are striving to increase the percentage of women within our organisation and to ensure that they progress to managerial positions more easily, so we have developed a broad gender programme. We regularly measure the equality of men and women regarding annual evaluation, promotion, intake, turnover and throughflow to partner level. We have also set up the Female Leadership programme, among other programmes, in which participants learn to promote ambitions effectively, based on their own strength and awareness of the environment. All PwC colleagues may also participate in PwC network Women NL, in which knowledge enhancement and strengthening contacts are the focus.

Another example of our activities in the field of gender is the New Parents Programme, in which we inform PwC staff about things involved in having children. In the terms and conditions of employment and meetings with management, colleagues and customers, we discuss what this major change means for your work. What’s more, since September 2008, partners of the mother and adoptive parents have been receiving 10 working days’ parental leave instead of two. At the time, we were the first major commercial company in the Netherlands to have such a scheme.

Internationally, too, we demand that greater attention is paid to equal opportunities for men and women. We therefore joined forces with UNICEF to develop the e-learning Building Gender IQ to teach users about gender equality. We also wholeheartedly support the He for She campaign. Our last example is an inspirational film by PwC Australia, whose message we also endorse wholeheartedly in the Netherlands: ‘Talent doesn’t have a gender, origin, religion or sexual preference. In practice, we actually see that diversity in itself is a source of talent.’