Unilever closing the gender gap: Half of managers are women

Of the 14 thousand management positions at Unilever in the Netherlands, 52 percent are now held by women, the Anglo-Dutch multinational announced on Tuesday. The company says it is "closing the gap between men an women", also by expanding paternity leave. From July 1st, the company is offering 6 weeks paid partner-leave around the birth of a child, RTL Z and RTL Nieuws report.

After "years" of "promoting gender equality in the workplace", the proportion of women in management positions increased from 38 percent in 2010 to 52 percent this year, the company said. According to the multinational, progress was made especially in departments where women were traditionally underrepresented, such as finance, technology, and logistics.

Unilever Benelux general manager Annemarieke de Haan is "proud" of the equal representation of men and women in top positions. "We want to contribute to a world where everyone has equal right and opportunities, and is not limited by negative standards and opportunities," she said.

Women are also strongly represented in the supervision of the company. 45 percent of Unilever's non-executive directors are women. Among the executive directors, 31 percent are women.

From July 1st, Dutch law is changing to allow spouses and partners to request up to five weeks of additional parental leave around the birth of their child. The first week is paid in full by the employer, the other four are paid at 70 percent from benefits agency UWV. The employee is obliged to take this leave within six months of the birth of their child, but can determine themselves if they want to take it all at once or spread it out.

What Unilever is doing comes down to 100 percent paid parental leave for six weeks. The extra long partner leave forms part of a new collective bargaining agreement concluded between union CNV and Unilever.