Together, Saїd Business School and Mars, Incorporated will identify opportunities to address gender inequality in business.
The research will form part of Mars’ new global crowdsourcing campaign, #HereToBeHeard. This work aims to capture the voices of women from all walks of life to help inform the concrete actions global business and society must take to close the gender opportunity gap.
#HereToBeHeard asks women everywhere: 'What needs to change so more women can reach their full potential?' This initial 'Listen' phase of the campaign will run through March, at which point researchers from the Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative (FOMI) will gather and analyse the responses, using AI natural language processing to ensure that every voice is captured. Findings will be shared with the world this summer and will inform the policies Mars can implement and advocate for in its commitment to unlock opportunities for women.
Announcing the partnership, Professor Andrew Stephen, Associate Dean of Research, L’Oréal Professor of Marketing and Director of FOMI, commented: ‘We’re delighted to welcome Mars to the Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative and thrilled to be working with them on #HereToBeHeard. The work will help to address elements of gender inequality in business and will inform tools and actions to help address these imbalances. We hope that these findings will become part of a meaningful and evergreen resource for the public and other communities in business and beyond.’