ArcelorMittal announced today that it is one of 230 companies selected for the 2019 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI), which distinguishes companies committed to transparency in gender reporting and advancing women’s equality in the workplace.

The index, which has doubled in size since 2018, having introduced thirteen new markets, includes companies from 10 sectors headquartered across 36 countries and regions. Collectively, these organisations employ 15 million people, 7 million of whom are women. This year’s GEI indexed companies account for US $9 trillion worth of traded stock market shares.

Bloomberg’s standardised gender reporting framework offers ArcelorMittal the opportunity to disclose information on how it promotes gender equality and to learn good practice from others on the index.

The GEI also provides the company with a framework for improving its understanding of how it promotes gender sensitivity in the way it does business, helping it to close the ‘gender gap’ in the broadest sense.

Bart Wille, executive vice president, head of human resources at ArcelorMittal said:

“ArcelorMittal has chosen to participate in the Gender-Equality Index because it gives us an opportunity to gain further insights to enhance an area we know we can strengthen further, that is achieving better female representation at all levels of the organisation. We want to publicly demonstrate our commitment to recruit, retain and develop the best talent – male or female – by building an inclusive culture and a strong and diverse talent pipeline. As a leading global industrial company, we operate in an extremely competitive landscape and we do not want to miss the opportunity to tap into half of the available global talent pool, or to cultivate the first-class ideas mixed gender teams can create.”

The GEI highlighted several elements of ArcelorMittal’s approach to gender equality as best in class results. These are:

  • A third of the members of the company’s board of directors is female
  • ArcelorMittal subsidiaries around the world promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) programmes which encourage young girls to pursue studies and a career in this area
  • Female staff engage in the company’s Women in Leadership programme and
  • The company is an active member of gender equality organisations, e.g. Women in Mining.

The GEI is also an important resource for investors who wish to benchmark ArcelorMittal’s performance on gender diversity against that of its peers. Such data increasingly influences investment decisions, so transparency on this and other key environmental, social and governance performance metrics is the cornerstone for good investor relations. 

“We applaud ArcelorMittal and the 229 firms tracked by the index for their action to measure gender equality through the Bloomberg GEI framework,” said Peter T. Grauer, Chairman of Bloomberg and Founding Chairman of the U.S. 30% club. ArcelorMittal’s GEI inclusion is a strong indicator to investors and industry peers alike that it is leading by example to advance ongoing efforts for a truly inclusive workforce.”

The Bloomberg gender reporting framework is voluntary reference index and has no associated costs. All public companies can submit data to Bloomberg. Those with a security listed on a U.S. exchange and a market capitalisation of US 1 billion or greater are eligible for index inclusion. For more information on the GEI visit:  https://www.womenatbloomberg.com/