Accenture CEO on gender equality: “We have to take care of all people” (video)

12 Nov 2015

Accenture’s CEO Pierre Nanterme has appeared in a series of videos advocating for why gender equality in STEM is so important, using his 15-year-old daughter as an example.

Accenture has previously talked about the importance of bridging the gender gap, most noticeably last June when it published its report entitled Continuing to Power Economic Growth: Attracting More Young Women into Science and Technology 2.0.

Sadly, it concluded that, while some progress has been made, negative perceptions and gender stereotypes persist among the 600 girls, young women, parents and teachers surveyed.

And yet, while 80pc of those surveyed understood the opportunities that STEM provides for them, 48pc of them believed that the jobs were still more suited to men.

And now, the company’s CEO has teamed up with the storytelling project group Dear World to give a reflection of what bridging this gap means to him.

Writing a message on his arm to show the viewer, Nanterme references his 15-year-old daughter Marie as a prime example of someone young that should be given the same opportunities that he had growing up.

“I feel this obligation to give the next generation the chance they deserve and when you’re leading a company … and you have the opportunity to make a contribution outside, for me that would be very simple,” Nanterme says.

“Gender equality is just the right thing to do and, guess what, it’s not as universal as you might think.”

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Colm Gorey
By Colm Gorey

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic. He joined in January 2014 and covered AI, IoT, science and anything that will get us to Mars quicker. When not trying to get his hands on the latest gaming release, he can be found lost in a sea of Wikipedia articles on obscure historic battles and countries that don't exist any more, or watching classic Simpsons episodes far too many times to count.

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