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LVMH Group has responded to a call for action launched by the French Minister for Gender Equality, Diversity and Equal Opportunities
Each year, 25 November is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women – an urgent issue that concerns everyone. LVMH is totally committed to supporting this fight, particularly since the great majority of its 163,000 employees are women (73%), and women are the target audience for most of its products. The Group thus naturally responded to the call for action launched by the French Ministry for Gender Equality, Diversity and Equal Opportunities.
In conjunction with International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the LVMH Group has responded to a call for action launched by the French Minister for Gender Equality, Diversity and Equal Opportunities, Elisabeth Moreno. The Minister has requested support from major businesses to help relay a public communication campaign – made particularly urgent by the Covid-19 crisis – both among employees and more broadly to external audiences via their social networks.
“To eliminate violence against women, we need to get all stakeholders in society involved. The commitment made by LVMH will enable us to provide an immediate and very practical response to a dire situation”, says Elisabeth Moreno, French Minister for Gender Equality, Diversity and Equal Opportunities.
Businesses contributing to this effort will share and promote the Ministry’s messages and help publicise the emergency numbers that women can call to get help. Successive lockdown measures and the associated restrictions on movement and isolation have unfortunately led to an increase in incidences of violence, particularly domestic violence, and made it more difficult to protect victims.
LVMH is also providing tangible support for the campaign by funding 1,000 nights in hotels for the non-profit Fondation des Femmes, enabling it to provide emergency accommodation to women and children who are victims of domestic violence.
The position of women in society and especially in the workplace has always been at the heart of LVMH’s human resources policy, reflected in the international program EllesVMH, launched nearly 15 years ago. This global community of women at LVMH takes on social issues and stimulates the career growth of women with both personal and professional mentoring.
The program is joined by the Shero internal online platform and community, which features a range of content (articles, videos, podcasts and more) along with concrete resources to help women employees of LVMH thrive in their professional lives. Shero currently counts over 42,000 members, of whom 30% are men.
Many LVMH Maisons are directly engaged in efforts to combat violence against women. Sephora has partnered with Women & Safe Children, a multidisciplinary association specialised in victimology and psycho-traumatology which helps women, children and adolescents who have been victims or witnesses to violence. For the past two years, volunteers from the beauty retailer have organised “solidarity sales”, with all proceeds going to the association.
The inhouse program Sephora Cares provides a range of resources for staff confronted with domestic violence. The Sephora Stands Together Fund offers short-term financial assistance, employees can benefit from temporary leave thanks to an internal time donation scheme, and job mobility is facilitated.
Hennessy has long supported the Soroptimist club in Cognac, funding essentials to equip apartments which that welcome women (often with children) forced to flee their homes due to domestic violence, alongside the non-profit Aserc (Association Socio-Educative de la région de Cognac), which managers the apartments. Bvlgari is a partner of the Houston Area Women’s Center, which welcomes victims of domestic violence.
In the United States, LVMH and 11 of its Maisons helped organise a workshop for women as part of the Coalition for the Homeless First Step program, in partnership with United Way of New York City.
Also, 2019 marked the launch of the initiative “Une Journée Pour Soi” by LVMH with French charity Secours Populaire to aid women in vulnerable situations, many of whom are victims of physical or psychological violence.
The initiative gives them “a day all their own” centred on their personal well-being thanks to three activities: a makeup session, a photoshoot and a cultural outing. LVMH is also a major partner of the film WOMAN directed by Anastasia Mikova and Yann Arthus-Bertrand, which addresses the subject of violence against women around the world.
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