NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Joleen Ong, Cascale's senior director of brand and retailer membership, recently joined a panel at the Good Business Forum in New York to discuss how workplace strategies, particularly those focused on women, have translated into tangible business outcomes.
The event, hosted by Good Business Lab, brought together industry leaders to showcase innovative tools, share success stories, learnings, and insights, and catalyze collaborations that drive measurable change. The "Business of Better Work" panel brought together experts from global apparel brands, the UN system, and sustainability coalitions to explore why investing in women-friendly workplaces makes smart business sense.
Ong noted that brands are shifting from one-off CSR initiatives to systemic and long-term investment in women workers. Sharing insights from Cascale collaborator SLCP's Impact Report, she highlighted that 35 percent of facilities reported a gender pay gap and that only 25 percent of managers are women despite making up 59 percent of the workforce. She emphasized the importance of strong HR management systems - a key area assessed by compliance tools such as the Higg Index, SLCP, and other compliance tools, to successfully achieve gender equity within a workplace.
Reflecting on her experience at Columbia Sportswear Company, Ong shared how she helped establish the 1Women's Leadership Initiative - an internal employee resource group - with support from the chief human resources officer and approval from the CEO. The initiative provided a sounding board for how to be more intentional with DEI efforts, mentorship, and internal learning and networking to support career advancement.
2Ong highlighted how facilities with strong social indicators tended to succeed in environmental metrics, noting that gender-inclusive HR systems supported better overall facility management. She pointed out how women in leadership often drive stronger follow-through on ESG initiatives, emphasizing that gendered risks are frequently overlooked in audits unless assessed through a gender lens.
Drawing on her experience as a board member of the menstrual health and education INGO Days for Girls International, Ong highlighted how menstrual stigma and inflexible workplaces that overlook menstrual health needs can contribute to absenteeism and limit opportunities for advancement.3She underscored that Inclusive workplaces are not only more effective but also more sustainable- highlighting the inextricable link between gender equity and climate resilience.
Ong shared challenges that hinder suppliers' ability to invest in gender equity, including inconsistent trust between sustainability and sourcing teams and misalignment between sustainability goals and purchasing practices. She concluded by underscoring the importance of business cases framed around factors such as return on investment, compliance and reputational risk, and competitive differentiation as key drivers of meaningful investment in gender equity.
1 Columbia Impact Report 2023 https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_7243294f6152cc533d813bdcb6c832fb/columbia/db/641/5807/pdf/Columbia_Impact_Report_2023.pdf(pg15)
2 Better Work (2022). Gender Equality and Inclusion Strategy 2022-2027 https://betterwork.org/reports-and-publications/global-gender-strategy/
3 Women, Gender Equality and Climate Change: https://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/climate_change/
View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Cascale on 3blmedia.com.
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SOURCE: Cascale
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/cascale-highlights-gender-equity-in-supply-chains-as-key-to-buil-1049253
