8th March 2022
International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic and political achievements of women. This year’s theme focuses on how communities around the world can collectively break down gender biases to work towards equality. To mark the occasion, Bonsucro’s own inspiring women have been invited to participate in campaigns from World Vision Mexico and Cana Online, to share their thoughts on gender inclusion in sugarcane.
Today, World Vision Mexico launches its campaign ‘Mujeres que inspiran’ (Women who inspire), inviting inspirational women in sugarcane to share their reflections on gender inclusion. For the campaign, our CEO, Danielle Morley, shared her insights on the key to success in her career, the challenges faced in her professional life, and offered advice to other women for overcoming gender stereotypes in the workplace.
Our Country Manager for Brazil, Livia Ignácio, will also feature in a video aimed at preventing violations to women’s rights in agriculture by developing and implementing good practices in the sector, which will be shared 18 March.
Livia has also been collaborating with Cana Online, the Brazilian platform for sugarcane news on a video to amplify women’s voices in the sugarcane sector. The video will be broadcast during Cana Online’s free online event looking at ways to increase female participation in sugarcane. To hear Livia sharing her message for women, sign up to the event launch on 10 March.
We’re pleased to collaborate with these exciting awareness raising campaigns, because promoting gender equality in sugarcane is important to us. Our Production Standard has always had a no gender discrimination policy. However, our new Production Standard directly addresses gender imbalance with a new indicator (5.4.1) requiring at least 15% of management and skilled positions to be appointed to women. Examples of such positions include: agriculture machinery drivers, agronomists, laboratory operators, and line and senior management.
Speaking on this decision, Ruth Ascencio, member of our Production Standard Revision Working Group, the team of sugarcane experts tasked with advising our new Production Standard, explained how:
“It is a new era in sugarcane, and inclusion is key. The sugarcane industry has been dominated by men for many years – now it’s time to empower female workers. Through including this indicator, we wanted to break down old biases and increase opportunities for women to participate and show their skills.”
Do you have a story about how your workplace is helping to break the bias in sugarcane? We’d love to hear from you! To share your stories, projects or testimonials on gender inclusion, please contact communications@bonsucro.com
