Embracing Equity on International Women's Day

Here is the note I shared with the Lenovo team today:

Team,

Happy International Women’s Day to all of you. Today, we recognize and celebrate women for their achievements. Whether they’re our colleagues, friends, mothers, sisters, or daughters, they are impacting our lives every day. This year’s International Women’s Day theme – embrace equity - challenges all of us to consider how systems and structures may create inequities between genders. Creating an equitable environment requires the support of everyone in the workplace. That’s why today is also a day for us to reflect together on Lenovo’s commitment to gender equality and actions in promoting it.

Our focus on gender equality is part of our ‘social impact’, within our broader ESG strategy. Creating equity in our workplace and treating people with equality matters to us as employees and citizens, but it also matters to our customers, partners and investors. The world is more and more engaged in building an inclusive culture and workplace, and we are also demonstrating our focus on it in our day-to-day business.

I’m proud that Lenovo has been recognized in the 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the fourth year. Lenovo is also a signatory of the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles, which seek to advance gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and community. With women comprising an industry-leading 36% of Lenovo’s global workforce, we’re focusing our efforts on gender representation at executive level. Aligned to the long-term targets published in our ESG Report (see p.121), our global leadership team is responsible for moving female representation in executive ranks (Executive Director and above) from 21% in 2020 to 27% by 2025. 

In alignment with this year’s theme, I encourage all employees to reflect on your own power to embrace equity and get engaged in your local events managed by our WILL (Women in Lenovo Leadership) chapters across the geos. I’m deeply grateful for the work of our WILL employee resource group each year to make this day an impactful moment for our company. I’d also like to extend a special congratulations to our seventh cohort of Women’s Leadership Development Program (WLDP) graduates. WLDP is a program specially designed to develop our internal pipeline of women in order to grow top talent while advancing progress toward our female executive representation goal.

Finally, I would like to share this video showing how your voices can inspire and help us build an inclusive, equitable culture at Lenovo. Together, we can work toward a more equitable future for women.

Happy International Women’s Day!