According to a study by recruitment agency HiringSolved, only 19.6% of workers at the top 25 tech companies in Silicon Valley are female. At Ctrip, the largest online travel service provider in China and the second largest in the world, that figure is roughly six in ten (61%).
According to Ms. Jane Jie Sun, CEO of Ctrip, seven women are represented in Ctrip's senior positions, including its COO and CFO. Women occupy nearly 50% of its mid-level management positions and 34% of its senior posts.
“Ctrip is a long-time advocate of women leadership development and morale building,” said Jie, who attributes her company’s success in advocating for women empowerment in the workplace to transparent and community-driven strategic thinking.
“Our company regularly surveys its female employees about their work and life, and picks out common issues to be incorporated into on-job training courses. Executive forums are held to invite women executives to share their experiences to help female staff exhibit their leadership.”
Jie mentioned that, in order to promote a healthy work-life balance in light of China’s two-child policy, male and female employees at Ctrip’s Shanghai headquarters have an office nursery to leave their pre-kindergarten children in while they work.
Ctrip also provides its staff with summer/winter vacation nursery classes and breastfeeding rooms to help its employees better balance work, family and career development.
Jie signed a United Nations statement of support last week, pledging her firm’s dedication to gender equality through the Women’s Empowerment Principles, a set of internal and external CSR strategies established by UN Women and the UN Global Compact in 2010:
- Establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality
- Treat all women and men fairly at work - respect and support human rights and nondiscrimination
- Ensure the health, safety and well-being of all women and men workers
- Promote education, training and professional development for women
- Implement enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women
- Promote equality through community initiatives and advocacy
- Measure and publicly report on progress to achieve gender equality
“Under these seven principles, Ctrip will continue to promote gender equality inside and outside of the company,” said Jie. “It's my hope that Ctrip can make its humble contribution to women's career development in China and the rest of the world.”
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