More Than 50 Companies Pledge to Advance Women at The 2019 MAKERS Conference

As a company who is maintaining gender equity at the leadership level, has measures in place for pay parity, and whose workforce matches the census measurements for diversity in America, we still have work to do on our mission to expand and diversify the creative class. We know that ethnically diverse women are under-represented in leadership. 72andSunny pledges to retain, promote and build the next generation of diverse female leaders in our industry. To do this, 72andSunny commits that by the end of 2020, the ethnic diversity of women in our company will be 38 percent or more to match the make up of women in our country according to the U.S. Census.

The Ad Council pledges to increase the percentage of women on the Ad Council Board of Directors to at least 50 percent by 2020 and to achieve at least 50 percent female representation across all three Creative Review Committee's by 2020.

Building on our global pay parity, Adobe will build a model for "opportunity parity" to examine fairness in internal movement and advancement across demographic groups.

AB InBev is committed to increasing female representation across all levels of the organization. To do this, we will develop a program to engage male champions for change across the organization, starting with our executive team who will each mentor and sponsor high potential women this year.

We pledge to unleash women's and girls' confidence and their limitless potential by harnessing our physical and digital platforms to create access to transformative holistic wellness experiences that reach millions across the country.

I pledge to better support mothers of all circumstances as they return to the Agency so that they feel they can do their best work. This includes resources such as a network of moms who have recently re-entered the company, a welcome packet with important details including back-up childcare resources & recent developments in the law or changes in benefits, as well as a thoughtfully stocked Mother's room, should they choose to breastfeed.

Women are far less represented as sources for news stories than they are as journalists in the newsroom. And that's saying something. In order to combat this inequality, Bloomberg pledges to formally media train women executives in finance and business in eight cities over the course of the year and pledges to ensure that Bloomberg TV will feature women for at least 30 percent of their outside sources in our broadcasts, up from 18 percent.

My pledge is to focus on fostering a safe and fair workplace for all, and to ensure that every woman at CBS feels it is a place where she can grow, thrive and lead.

Cognizant is committed to building a diverse, vibrant workforce, and as such, providing ample opportunities for women to grow their careers with us. Cognizant pledges to employ at least 100,000 women around the world by 2020.

This upcoming year, we are excited to commit to launching an open source free business skill and entrepreneurial course to the industry and our majority female-owned and operated distribution network so that they can grow and scale their businesses and reach their full potential.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

We will be developing Engine's first ever Global Diversity program. Our goal will be to have every level of our organization reflect the demographic breakdown in each market in the next three years.

We pledge to double the percentage of female contributing photographers for our Creative Content in 2019. As a result, this will improve our diversity and inclusion perspective and content in our Creative Image Library.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Google reaffirms our commitment to women, and women of color — and this work continues through our company-wide objective around diversity, equity and inclusion again in 2019. We have doubled-down on improving and accelerating representation of women— through hiring, progression and retention—and creating a more inclusive culture for everyone.

We pledge to make Hilton a great place to work where all women thrive – from our housekeepers to our executives – by investing in every stage of their experience with us: including High School completion assistance, ivy league leadership courses, best in class programs for parents, fully paid sabbatical programs AND by setting a bold strategy to achieve gender parity at our leadership levels.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Hulu pledges to analyze its hiring, promotion, and turnover drivers - with a specific look at gender - and recommend programmatic changes to address gaps. Hulu also pledges to build a more robust return-to-work program for new parents and an organization information Hub around parental leave and resources.

I pledge to foster discussions on Diversity and Inclusion in all of our industry groups as well as on the board level for all of the initiatives the IAB is running this year. I believe that the IAB can create real and meaningful change, as we represent the majority of the digital media industry. We are starting with our #WomenVisionaries initiative, but expect a lot more to come from the IAB during the year.

I pledge to showcase and promote leaders who live by the "Three A's: Appreciate, Amplify, and Advocate" for her. #WeBelong #Ally ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

We will significantly increase the number of women in senior operating roles (25 percent increase by 2025).

We pledge to always stand with the powerful #TimesUp movement so that there will be no going back to days of passive silence or acceptance of workplace sexual harassment and assault.

I will continue to leverage the creative and buying power of L'Oreal USA's media to promote the accurate portrayal of women so that we can more fully realize the #SeeHer mission across as much media as possible

My pledge is to continue to expand the coaching program we piloted at LinkedIn last year to support women returning from maternity leave by pairing them with a coach and providing a host of materials for both the manager and the returning mom, including new guides and videos for managers.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

At lululemon we are on a continuous journey to foster an environment that reflects equality and inclusivity for our people. Last year, we achieved pay equity across the organization and this May, we are committed to introducing an innovative global parental leave program that empowers our people on their journey through parenthood.

Mailchimp is committed to accelerating gender parity for women in tech. And we recognize the important role that sponsorship can play in elevating the visibility of women, their work, and their contributions to our business. In 2019, we pledge to implement an executive sponsorship program for employees who identify as women—at least half of them women of color—with the goal of increasing their career opportunities, access to professional networks and entry into leadership roles.

We are continuing same pledge as last year with goal of introducing 10 new role model dolls to inspire girls to reach their limitless potential in 2019. In addition, we also pledge to raise awareness for the Dream Gap. Research has identified that starting at age of five, girls are less likely than boys to view their own gender as smart and begin to lose confidence in their own competence. The Dream Gap Project is a multi- year initiative to raise awareness around factors that prevent girls from reaching their full potential.

Beginning in 2019, we will launch the delivery of McDonald's D&I education platform, "Food for Thought, Beyond Bias" to our corporate recruitment teams and selected talent agency partners to mitigate bias in talent selection.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

As a firm, we are committed to making significant progress towards gender parity by 2020, and to sharing information about our progress. In addition, we are driving a global inclusivity effort and sponsorship initiative, given our research insights that individuals are more likely to succeed if they have a sponsor who creates opportunities and advocates for them.

Medialink pledges to continue to amplify the importance of women on boards and in highest executive positions through its Executive Search practice. Personally, I will continue to "make noise" about equality issues whenever, wherever I can and I personally commit to counseling/mentoring 19 women in 2019.

In the USA, we are continuing to evaluate pay equity across the entire organization. While we are continuing that process, we are focused on driving real change and have committed to dedicate two-thirds of the annual USA raise pool to women within the organization until pay equity is achieved. We followed through on this commitment when awarding raises in 2018.

I pledge to offer and encourage leadership training and professional development courses for at least 50 percent of the women on my staff to help develop future female leaders.

In order to build and leverage a strong pipeline of diverse leaders, PayPal will focus efforts in driving deeper engagement, retention, and an intentional accelerated path towards leadership roles at PayPal for women and ethnically diverse top talent.

At Prophet, we are committed to increasing women in our leadership. In order to do so, both retention and sponsorship of existing strong women employees and the hiring of strong women leadership from outside are a critical part of this commitment. Therefore, we pledge that in 2019 we will pilot a program to sponsor high potential managers so they can recognize their path to partner and to create a roadmap with them. This includes creating a very deliberate process for high potential women who return from maternity leave with a desire to go back to consulting, but do not know if they can. We will also ensure that 50 percent of the candidates we interview for leadership positionsare women. We will track our process and discuss our progress on a quarterly basis with the Executive Committee and at semi-annual Board meetings.

R/GA pledges to increase retention of women of color by 15 percent year on year through professional development, mentoring, community activations and career planning. We have also created tools and processes for employees and their managers to help guide their career and growth as we build a more inclusive culture.

Refinery29 declares that an inclusive office environment that proactively celebrates diversity is the only way that we can continue to do our best work. It is imperative that our insides reflect that of the audience we serve. To achieve this we are committing to increase the population of our employees of color by 20 percent by the end of 2019.

Rich Talent Group will continue its mission of partnering with today's visionary companies to diversify and build transformative teams that help change the world. We pledge that 75 percent of the candidate slates we recommend to our clients, would add diversity to the leadership team in consideration.

By 2020, we pledge to create a three-part Rothy's education platform. First, our leadership team will host a Rothy's Office Hours Program. We will invite aspiring female entrepreneurs and innovators to sit down and thoroughly discuss any questions or thoughts they have about business building and sustainability-focused ventures. Secondly, we pledge to deepen our growing relationship with the teacher community. As the incredible educators that are empowering our next generation—and standing on their feet doing it—teachers truly embody the Rothy's superwoman. And finally, we pledge to create five Rothy's Scholarships to empower female students in the field of sustainable design and innovation.

RRE Pledges to work with other NYC VCs to more directly improve access to fundraising opportunities for women and underrepresented groups.

Sleep Number pledges to continue to support its goal of achieving gender balance in our retail stores by the end of 2020 by engaging leadership, increasing awareness, and driving action. To engage leadership, Sleep Number has created a team of leaders led by a female Regional Vice President to bring continued visibility and passion for the pledge. To increase awareness, Sleep Number will continue to expect senior leaders within the company to create their own pledge for their area. And, to drive action, the talent acquisition team has been developing sourcing strategies to attract more females to the company and leveraging technology to ensure job descriptions do not have gender bias in how they are written, we will ramp up our intern program with a focus on race and gender, and we will continue to spotlight team members from across the country, sharing their personal passions and stories.

Turner pledges to continue on our momentum to increase our representation of women and people of color in our overall leadership roles.

Uber pledges to build a radically caregiver inclusive workplace by expanding policies for non-parental caregivers leave and formalizing flexible work processes. Uber also pledges to launch sponsorship programs in all of our major regions and business units by the end of the year.

I pledge to establish a "diversity rolodex" of talented women in the investment management industry to facilitate diverse slates for lateral hires at UBS Asset Management and to promote mobility across our industry.

UM is re-committing to doubling our women of color at every employment level by 2020. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

We are proud that Unilever USA was named the #1 Company for Working Mothers by Working Mother Media in 2018. In 2019, we pledge to continue to create an inclusive culture for all working families.

At Verizon we are committed to extending the reach of our Unconscious Bias training to all employees globally and enhancing tools that reinforce our efforts to eliminate unconscious bias, including gender bias.

Zambezi pledges to conduct a company wide wage audit by end of Q2, and correct any like-for-like disparities by end of Q3 to ensure gender pay equity.

We pledge, across Zenith, Moxie and MRY equal representation within all 3 agencies as it relates to our Leadership Team AND Executive Committee. We will no longer pool the levels to blanket the data – we will go level by level and review the pipeline at the Vice President level and up to assure there is a definitive 50/50 split within the group in 2019.

Equality is a choice, unconscious bias is an excuse. I pledge to help advance women, advance equality, and advance the economy by creating action steps and metrics for accountability. I will continue to work with media and advertising companies to increase the accurate representation of women and girls in advertising by 20 percent by 2020, to coach men on the new rules of the workplace, to help Fortune 500 companies close the wage gap, and to support equal parental leave policies to help eliminate hiring bias.