When men participate in gender equality programs, progress is made three times faster than when they do not, Boston Consulting Group United Kingdom research shows. That's why personal branding institute BrandedU and HR services provider HeadFirst Group are organizing the 'Men as Advocates for Women's Visibility' summit on June 27. An initiative to engage men in the conversation about gender equality in business.

Just a women's quota for the European corporate top is not enough. In fact, this will change little for the Netherlands, because a women's quota has already been in place here since January 1, 2022. For more women to reach the top, we need male role models to influence the behavior of other men.

Nancy Poleon, BrandedU founder, explains, "Men hold the majority of leadership positions, so the power lies with them to change things. We need their support to help us and really make a difference in closing the gender gap and achieving equality in the workplace."

Inclusive teams

The summit will take place at HeadFirst Group's headquarters in Hoofddorp, the HR service provider where two women were recently appointed to top positions, including CEO Marion van Happen. About the choice to be hosting partner of the summit, she says: "As a leading HR service provider, we see a prominent role for our organization to create a fair labor market. I am not only talking about gender, but also about work ability, cultural diversity, age and LGBT+. It's about learning and evolving together so we can build a future where workplaces are more diverse and equal."

Top business community comes together
Poleon her male co-presenter is Maarten van Rossum (VP of public affairs at Lightyear). They will engage with men active in promoting gender equality in the workplace. Some examples are Baba Touré (Founder & Managing Director at Hammerfest), Clayde Menso (Director at International Theater Amsterdam), Dirk van Zon (HR Business Partner at Rituals), John Olivieira-Siere (Publisher at OneWorld), Melchior de Ridder (CEO at Nationale Nederlanden Next), Michael Kimmijser (Small Medium & Corporate Business Lead at Microsoft), Philippe Stulens (Chief Marketing Officer at Randstad), Rafe Rosato (Chief Innovation Officer at DLL) ánd Han Kolff (Chairman of the Board at HeadFirst Group).

Kolff on his participation: "Gender equality is not yet commonplace for many companies. Our goal is to get diversity into the DNA of companies. An afternoon of connections, stories and panel discussions to get inspired with the people who take this issue seriously contributes to this."