Professional services firm Accenture pledged on Wednesday to achieve a 50-50 gender balance in the workforce by 2025.
The company is on track to meet that goal, with 150,000 women making up about 40% of its workforce. It had set out to reach that percentage by the end of 2017, but hit it a year early.
“We embrace diversity as a source of creativity and competitive advantage,” says Ellyn Shook, chief leadership and human resources officer at Accenture. “As we work toward ‘50 by 25,’ our ultimate goal is to create a truly human environment where people have a real sense of belonging, where they can show up every day, be who they are and be their best, both professionally and personally.”
Beyond overall gender equality, Accenture aims to grow the percentage of female managing directors to 25% by 2020.
So far, the company has promoted the largest percentage of women (30%) to managing director level in 2016 and launched initiatives to provide women with in-demand skills in order to remain competitive, according to Accenture.
Earlier this year, Accenture released a
