Gender Parity Collaborative Sustains Success Closing Gender Gap Reveals Latest McKinsey Data

FAIRFIELD, N.J., July 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Gender Parity Collaborative, an award-winning consortium within the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA) founded with the singular goal of closing the gender gap in the healthcare and life-sciences industry, announced groundbreaking progress toward gender parity and equity from a recent update of the Women in the Workplace study issued by McKinsey & Company.

The latest data in this special cohort report highlights improvements by the 15 companies that include high profile industry leaders such as Advanced Clinical, Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Cardinal Health, Genentech, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Lundbeck, Medidata Solutions, Parexel, Pfizer, Quest Diagnostics, Real Chemistry, Sanofi, and Takeda. 

The report reveals that specifically at the senior vice president and manager levels, equal gender representation has almost been achieved with 48 percent and 49 percent of representation by women in those categories respectively. From 2018 to 2020, the cohort doubled the representation of women senior vice presidents—jumping from 24 percent to 48 percent. In comparison, from 2018 to 2020, the broader pharmaceutical and medical product sector only increased representation of women senior vice presidents by seven percentage points, going from 25 percent to 32 percent.

Marie-Caroline Strok, Director, Growth Initiatives Lead, Gender Parity Collaborative, shared that she is thrilled by the findings and is determined to continue this trajectory. "We believed in the possibility and merit of this goal when we launched this consortium. Our team is dedicated to ensuring companies' systemic processes and policies are transformed to create a workplace that is equitable for all. Only by upgrading our work environment will we make sustainable progress on gender parity, diversity, and inclusion. This progress would not be possible without the impressive leadership and commitment from the member companies that make up the Collaborative cohort."

Julie Ross, President, Advanced Clinical, has been working with the HBA and Gender Parity Collaborative, and as an HBA Board Member. Ross has witnessed the Collaborative's steady progress and increased potential from day one. "The success we have seen in the past year alone is extremely promising and our organization is proud to be making such a meaningful impact within our industry and beyond. Participating in the growth of the Gender Parity Collaborative has been a powerful experience as the members learn from and openly challenge each other to be better. We are excited to continue expanding the consortium with meaningful and urgent change in mind on the journey to an equitable workplace for all."

All 15 HBA Collaborative companies have significantly improved representation of women in the talent pipeline across all levels year over year. This has positioned the participating companies to continue outperforming the broader pharmaceutical and medical product industry verticals with great numbers.

In 2018, the HBA Collaborative identified and secured a collaboration with the renowned Women in the Workplace study. This relationship with McKinsey & Company has enabled each Collaborative company to participate in the study and get their individual benchmark directly from McKinsey. It was critical to ensure that the progress and impact of the Collaborative was grounded in data and this collaboration has positioned the organization to illustrate the incredible achievements of the past few years.

About the Gender Parity Collaborative and the HBA

The HBA's Gender Parity Collaborative is an award-winning consortium of 15 leading healthcare and life-sciences companies dedicated to accelerating gender parity and diversity by fostering and adopting systemic changes in the industry workplace. As champions for a more equitable workplace, these advocates recognize that gender parity is not a women's issue but a business imperative that ultimately will drive better business results.

The Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA) is a global not-for-profit organization dedicated to furthering the advancement and impact of women in the business of healthcare. The HBA provides networking forums to build relationships; access to industry thought leaders to broaden perspective; educational programs to develop leadership skills and global recognition of outstanding individuals and companies to promote visibility of their achievements in advancing gender parity in the workplace.

For more information regarding the Women in Workplace study and the Gender Parity Collaborative, please visit GenderParity.HBA.org. For more information about the HBA, visit HBAnet.org.

CONTACT: Christine Slater, [email protected]

SOURCE HBA Gender Parity Collaborative

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