Top Executives Pledge to Put More Women in Charge By 2030- Valutrics

The highest glass ceiling in the U.S. might remain intact after November 8, but there seems to have been a sea change in women’s equality in the workplace lately.

Executives and founders from 27 major corporations, including LinkedIn’s CEO Jeffrey Weiner, Huffington Post and Thrive Global founder Arianna Huffington and chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Company Muhtar Kent, have committed to achieving an equal representation of women in top management by 2030 through a coalition called Paradigm for Parity. Launched Wednesday, the group lays out an action plan for remedying the fact that only 14.2 percent of executives and only 24 CEOs at SP 500 companies are women. Among Fortune 100 companies, women hold fewer than 10 percent of the four most senior positions.

The news comes on the heels of a push this week by influential investors Pax World Management, Arjuna Capital and Trillium Asset Management demanding big banks disclose wage information by gender. This is the same group that persuaded Amazon, Intel, Expedia and Apple to publish pay data for men and women so far this year. Brian T. Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, which is in the cross hairs of this investor group, is among those who have joined the Paradigm for Parity coalition.

The coalition is different from other gender equality groups, says co-chair, banking veteran and partner at Evercore Wealth Management Jewelle Bickford, because it outlines specific recommendations for how companies can achieve gender equality goals. For the past 18 months, the group–which also includes Bill McDermott, CEO of software and tech company SAP; Pierre Nanterme, chairman and CEO of professional services firm Accenture; and David MacLennan, chairman and CEO of food and agriculture giant Cargill–collaborated on a so-called 5-Point Action Plan.

However, the organization does not include a plan to make sure companies follow through on their pledge. Instead, it encourages organizations to identify goals and appropriate methods to meet them, set metrics for measuring success, and communicate progress internally. Public transparency is encouraged, but not required as part of companies’ commitment to the movement.

In the coalition’s verbiage, here are the five components of equal representation:

1. Eliminating or minimizing unconscious bias in the workplace.
2. Significantly increasing the number of women in senior operating roles, with the near-term goal of at least 30 percent representation in all leadership groups.
3. Measuring targets and maintaining accountability by providing regular progress reports.
4. Basing career progress on business results and performance, rather than physical presence in the office.
5. Providing sponsors, not just mentors, to women well positioned for long term success.

Bickford launched the project with DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman and Sandra Beach Lin, former president and CEO of Calisolar, Inc. (now Silicor Materials).