British High Commission Singapore launches The Gender Pledge 2024
On International Women’s Day 2024, the British High Commission Singapore renews its commitment to gender equality through the Gender Pledge 2024.
On this International Women’s Day 2024, the British High Commission (BHC) Singapore is renewing its ongoing commitment to gender equality. This year, the BHC Gender Pledge 2024 highlights the continued efforts made to champion gender equality within and beyond the workplace.
BHC Singapore has updated its Gender Pledge, first adopted in 2019, to further integrate gender equality and inclusion objectives into business planning and corporate culture. The BHC’s Management Board has committed to track and regularly review the pledge.
The Gender Pledge will continue to set out for the BHC and its staff key actions, measures and best practices - such as:
-
Championing gender equality within the workplace through inclusive recruitment and retention practices
-
Ensuring diverse gender representation at all public events organised by the BHC and refusing to participate in single-sex panel discussions
-
Publishing communications with gender balanced visuals and which avoid unnecessary gendered terminology and stereotyping;
-
Supporting events that promote gender equality and awareness.
The BHC’s Gender Pledge aligns with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office’s ‘3 Es’ framework - to educate girls, empower women, and end violence. The UK has a strong global reputation in standing up for the rights of women and girls around the world. Our work is transforming lives and helping to build longer term prosperity, stability, and a fairer and freer world that will benefit everyone.
Susanna Pettigrew, the BHC’s Gender Champion said:
Gender equality isn’t confined to a single date in the year such as International Women’s Day but is a long-term commitment to keep playing our part in addressing the gender gap. In 2023 we have actively engaged in and hosted many events and initiatives on gender equality, engaging youth, early career professionals and leaders alike across many fields and sectors; we have challenged partners to increase diversity on panels; we have challenged ourselves to expand our networks; we have looked at our parental leave policies to ensure that both parents can take the time that they need upon the birth of a child; and we adopted a new flexibility charter to allow our staff to work flexibly to suit their personal circumstances as far as business requirements allow. In 2024 we are not only renewing these commitments but plan to step up our monitoring to better be able to hold ourselves to account. We will continue to ensure our workplace is as inclusive as it can be.
BHC Gender Pledge 2024 can be found here: