PepsiCos SVP Speaks About The Need For Bold Action

PepsiCos SVP Speaks About The Need For Bold Action I go to a million conferences, and this one has been extraordinary, Deborah Rosado Shaw, SVP, Chief Global Diversity and Engagement Officer at PepsiCo told a crowd of 100 women on Thursday (Nov. 2) at the inaugural Fairygodboss Galvanize Summit. At the NYC-based conference, which kicked off Wednesday night, leaders of womens employee resource groups gathered to brainstorm how to make their womens networks more effective.Shaw whose presentation followed a long list of inspirational speakers, including Accentures CHRO Ellyn Shook and GEs Vice Chair Beth Comstock, among others perfectly summed up the spirit and energy of the summit. I think theres a real opportunity to have today be a day that we look back on a month or a year from now and go, I remember that day I remember who I spoke with and it changed everything. And its really about deciding that thats what we want this day to be. Choose something you heard today and have it be what makes a difference for you. She drove home the point that in buchung to make progress, its important not to dwell on whats wrong and whats not working but to instead to think critically about whats missing and what we can do to work toward a more equal workplace for all women. I think to a great extent this convening is really about addressing whats missing, Shaw said, thanking Fairygodboss Co-Founders Romy Newman and Georgene Huang for inviting her to speak and for having the guts to convene us to bring us into a room to see what we might discover through and with each other.While Shaw interspersed some humor into her remarks joking, for instance, that she birthed three and acquired two of her five children, which she highly recommends she didnt shy away from having what she called a big-girl talk.She spoke poignantly about not only gender inequality, but also racial inequality and how the two intersect. When we say people of color, we usually mean men, she said. And when we say women, we dont usually mean women of color. Shaw mentioned that it welches Latinas Equal Pay Day meaning Latina women would have to work through November 2 of this year to make the saatkorn amount of money that white men made last year (Equal Pay Day for white women fell in early April this year).Shaw tasked those in the audience with taking with them their advocacy and leadership skills to each new conversation they have. We have to be really inclusive in order to engage each other and really get whats possible out of a room like this and then all of the rooms that you guys touch, she said. Because youre all representatives here. In addition to sharing with the audience some actionable advice, Shaw offered some insight into what PepsiCo is doing to advance womens careers. At the company, where theres a goal to have gender parity in management positions by 2025, it was never about if we should do this it was about how, Shaw explained. She pointed to initiatives such as Peps iCos Ready to Return program, and also emphasized the importance of helping more women particularly women of color get access to power. Over the years, Ive worked with a lot of Fortune 100 companies, she said, and what Ive learned is that the difference is about access.Shaw and her colleagues have worked not only with women in the U.S., but also with PepsiCo employees across the world. Theyve brainstormed ways to make their women-focused training programs work across different cultures and races, convening women in countries such as Dubai, where women face life challenges, cultural barriers, and organizational barriers that certainly dont mirror those women face in the U.S. The bottom line, though, remains the same equipping women with the confidence and access they need to move beyond the obstacles that limit them. While she addressed the audience with unwavering eloquence, confidence, and poise, Shaw did not pretend to have all the answers. Theres much to work on, she said. Ther es no the answer. If there was a known solution, why wouldnt the best companies in the world already have figured this out?Still, she did leave the crowd with some practical advice on how to think about driving change Gender parity is a game-changing outcome, Shaw said. Its strategic. Its about constructive disruption. Its purpose-driven. Its about inspired engagement. Its highly collaborative. Its about authorship. Its about bold action.