Women NL

Why Women NL?

Over the past years, women are increasingly taking up senior leadership roles. However, many women still struggle to advance their professional and personal development. Why is that? Research found subtle patterns of gender bias, both by women and men, where women were held by different standards than men when it comes to promotion. Moreover, research found that women’s careers slow down and become more restricted when they have children. Within PwC, we see that the percentage of female colleagues typically declines when climbing the corporate ladder. And this hinders our progress. The more included and recognized a diverse workforce is, the more people are empowered and the more impact we make for our clients.

We say, ‘time to find the new balance between feminine and masculine values’ and that’s exactly where our added value lies: to challenge ruling perspectives, to inspire female colleagues, and to empower female colleagues within PwC.

What activities does Women NL organise?

We organize activities and events for women - no matter their function level - throughout PwC, creating more awareness, opening up discussions, and providing opportunities and resources, to ultimately strike a better balance between feminine and masculine values.

Next to our regular newsletter, these events are also a regular part of our annual planning:

Townhall: here we provide you with a platform to voice your opinions, needs, and questions to the board of PwC Women NL
Women Talks: where you learn from female senior leadership’s experiences on various women-related challenges.
Lean in Circles: where we welcome female colleagues to share their own experiences and where we discuss challenges in talking groups with other women within PwC.
International Women’s Day: when we celebrate cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women, every year with a different theme.

We also join recruitment events - and other external events: to enhance our presence and attract new female talent and to act as the linchpin between various women-related activities, regardless of industry.

How do we do it?

PwC Women NL is the network run by and for women within PwC. We have a very dedicated Women NL Board and ambassador network that brainstorm together about and organize events, keep up with recent developments, and keep our eyes and ears open about the needs and wishes of our female community within PwC.

International cooperation

Internationally as well we ask for equal opportunities for both men and women. That’s why we fully support the ‘He for She’ campaign. We also fully endorse the message in the following video from PwC Australia: ‘talent knows no gender, race, religion or sexual preference: in practice we see that diversity in itself is a source of talent’.

Measuring and monitoring goals

PwC measures equality of male and female colleagues in terms of appraisals, promotion, inflow, outflow and promotion to the partner level on a regular basis. We are getting ever closer to equal percentages of male and female colleagues in our organization. In the most senior positions however, we still see a relatively smaller percentage of female colleagues. In FY2022/2023, 25% of partner promotions and 30% of promotions directors consisted of female colleagues. We set the ambition in our firm to realise a gender ratio of at least 30% female partners and also 30% male partners. Furthermore, we strive to have at least 35% female directors and 35% male directors by 2030.