2025 International Women’s Day: Top Initiatives from Large Corporations to Accelerate Action

As the world celebrates International Women’s Day, businesses are stepping up to foster gender equality and drive women’s empowerment in the workplace. Large corporations are implementing meaningful initiatives to create more inclusive environments, bridging the gender gap, and supporting career progression for women.

FACCI’s Patron Members are at the forefront of these efforts, taking actionable steps to ensure that gender diversity is not just a goal but a reality. Here’s how Bureau Veritas, ENGIE, GEODIS, Legrand, Transdev, Schneider Electric, Swinburne, Forvis Mazars, AXA XL and Natixis are accelerating progress.

Bureau Veritas: Addressing Workplace Equity

At Bureau Veritas Pacific, one really easy and practical way we can assist with gender equality throughout our sphere of influence is that we have been providing free menstruation products in all of our branch bathroom facilities across the Pacific region. This initiative is aimed at improving access to essential hygiene items and supporting the health and wellbeing of our employees and visitors who menstruate.

Studies have shown that lack of access to affordable menstruation products can have significant negative impacts, including increased risk of infection, missed work or school days, and feelings of shame or stigma. By offering free pads, tampons, and other menstrual supplies, Bureau Veritas Pacific is helping to remove barriers and ensure that everyone who needs these products can access them discreetly and without financial burden.

This move aligns with the company's broader commitment to promoting gender equality, diversity, and inclusive practices in the workplace. Providing free menstruation products is an important step in supporting employees who menstruate and creating a more equitable and supportive work environment.

ENGIE: Driving Structural Change for Gender Parity

At ENGIE, we recognise that a diverse and inclusive culture is vital to leading the transition to a carbon neutral economy.  Last year we revised our existing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Framework transitioning to a new business led DEI Charter and Working Group structure. Working Groups are charged with gathering team members ideas and feedback and developing and implementing action plans for each of the areas of focus: Gender Parity, Generations, Abilities, LGBTQA+ and Origins.
The Gender Parity group focusses on advancing gender diversity within ENGIE, supporting cultural change and the evolution of attitudes towards an inclusive and unbiased working environment.
Our ENGIE ANZ Gender Equality Strategy also outlines the actions we are taking as part of our commitment to increasing the representation of females at our senior level, closing our gender pay gap, maintaining gender pay equity (for like for like roles), promoting flexibility and increasing support for carers.

GEODIS: Empowering Women Through Inclusion and Mentorship

At GEODIS, we are passionate about gender parity and women empowerment. Our GEODIS Women's Network (GWN) is an open and inclusive community for every GEODIS individual who wants to make a positive impact. 

Sponsored by GEODIS’ executive management and driven by an active steering committee, the GWN focuses on initiatives that:

• Foster inclusion
• Unleash women’s potential
• Reduce professional gender disparity
• Enhance work-life balance

GWN runs mentorship programs, organises events to promote health and wellbeing, offers members networking opportunities and with its global communities, promotes the dialogue across the group to identify areas for improvement regarding diversity and inclusion.

This year, GWN will launch a series of financial literacy training workshops.

We are also GEEIS certified in Australia.

Learn more here.

Legrand: Mentorship and Recognition Through ellegrand

Legrand Australia is proud to have achieved GEEIS certification, recognising our commitment to gender equality. We continue to ensure we align our activities to the commitments of this certification. In addition, we have a committee called ellegrand, which fosters an inclusive culture, empowering all employees to reach their full potential. Through mentorship, skills development, and advocacy, ellegrand actively drives diversity within and beyond Legrand. This achievement and initiative reflects our ongoing dedication to creating a more equitable workplace for everyone.

Transdev: Advancing Women in Transport

Since the launch of our inaugural Gender Equality Action Plan last year, Transdev Australia & New Zealand have made strides against the targets outlined therein, with actions including:

•    The expansion of our Women on the Move network, providing support for our frontline female workforce;
•    Increased the number of women in key management roles and made further positive shifts in the gender pay gap;
•    Developed inclusive recruitment strategies, updated our policies and audited our operations for barriers inhibiting the attraction, retention or development of women at Transdev; and
•    Expanded our Gender Equality Action Plan Working Group and engaged more Journey Makers in our efforts to reduce gender bias.

For International Women’s Day in 2025, we plan to mark the day with events within our operations reflecting on the progress made and redoubling our efforts to ensure Transdev is a place where every individual feels seen, heard and empowered. 

Schneider Electric: Recognised Leadership in Diversity and Pay Equity

Our diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives have received wide acclaim and awards including recognition by the World Economic Forum as a Global Parity Alliance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Lighthouse. Schneider Electric Australia is also proud to have been recognised as an inclusive employer by organisations such as the Diversity Council of Australia and WORK180. At Schneider Electric we are also proactively moving the needle on pay equity, which takes focus and action across many levels. To that end, we had set a clear target to attain and maintain pay equity at below 1% difference between females and males by 2025. We are excited to share that we achieved this ambition in 2024, ahead of schedule. 

Learn more here.

Swinburne University of Technology: Advancing Gender Equity Through Leadership and Career Development

Swinburne embeds gender equity through our Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP) and Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) Action plans.

Our 2025 areas of focus include:

• Celebrating and learning from the achievements of the ASTRO 3D Centre on IWD
• Retention and succession planning/talent mapping for senior leaders
• Maintaining our commitment to academic career development through the SWAN career development program
• Integrating inclusive leadership and recruitment skills into the design of our Leadership Fundamentals and Emerging Leaders programs.

Forvis Mazars: Championing Gender Diversity and Career Progression

At Forvis Mazars, gender diversity is a priority integrated into every level of our business agenda. We recognise that diverse, inclusive workplaces are important for long-term success, and we foster a culture where all team members can thrive, contribute meaningfully, and be themselves.

We achieve this by:

• Offering and promoting flexible working arrangements, equal pay, training and career development, mentoring, and leadership programs. In 2024, this resulted in Forvis Mazars being named the Employer of the Year at the Women in Finance Awards.
• Continuously supporting our Women@ForvisMazars program to provide development, celebrate achievements, promote internal and external networking, and support disadvantaged women both locally and globally.
• Maintaining a strong talent pipeline with women, ensuring fair career progression within our firm.
• Actively maintaining a neutral gender pay gap as reported in the latest WGEA report.

AXA XL: Supporting Employees Through Inclusive Workplace Policies

We have recently enhanced our We Care program by implementing:

• Gender-neutral parental policy of 16 weeks paid leave
• Fertility treatment leave policy – AXA XL recognises the physical and emotional stresses of undergoing fertility testing and treatment, including the time sensitive nature of the treatment, and wishes to support those colleagues, and those with partners, who are going through the process
• Specific working environment support considerations for colleagues experiencing menopause or medical conditions relating to menstrual health or men’s health

Natixis: Driving Gender Equity Through Community and Advocacy

At Natixis CIB, we are a strong supporter of DEI efforts. Creating a diverse team has a whole range of positive impacts – it drives innovation, fosters engagement, and improves collaboration.

Globally, we are continuing to engage our “We In Natixis Network” (WINN) which aims to involve the whole community in the gender equity conversation and women empowerment, using diversity and inclusion as a strategic approach to help business and achieve greater impact. It also emphasizes the role of male allies in progressing towards gender parity and accelerate change for a more equitable workplace.

In APAC, we created our own local network Diversity @Natixis APAC (DANA) in 2018, which promotes and fosters diversity and inclusion in Natixis CIB’s APAC workplace. We regularly hold panel discussions, fireside chats, mentorship programs, speed networking, and join in external events across APAC, as well as celebrating key dates such as International Women’s Day and World Day of Cultural Diversity.

Learn more with videos and podcasts.

Leading the Way for Gender Equality

On International Women’s Day, it’s essential to recognise and amplify the contributions of organisations committed to accelerating gender equality. Through inclusive policies, leadership initiatives, and structural changes, companies like Transdev, Bureau Veritas, ENGIE, and Legrand are not only making workplaces more diverse but are also setting industry-wide standards for equity and inclusion.

As we celebrate this day, let’s continue to champion initiatives that empower women and create truly inclusive environments where everyone can thrive.

Sources: Bureau Veritas / ENGIE / GEODIS / Legrand / Transdev / Schneider Electric / Swinburne / Forvis Mazars / AXA XL / Natixis