Elsevier wins 2022 Women of the Future Corporate Award

Mirit Eldor accepts the Women of the Future Corporate Award for Elsevier. Mirit is EVP for Strategy, Secretary of Elsevier’s Inclusion & Diversity Advisory Board and Executive Sponsor of Elsevier’s Gender Equity Taskforce. (Photo by Catherine Adenle)

In October, Elsevier Publisher Emily Wang reported an increase in the number of women editors in her journal Palaeo opens in new tab/window from 16% in January to 35%. She achieved this impressive result by working closely with her Editor-in-Chief to explore all the options. Her top tips included ensuring that all of the editors were fully on board and involved in decision-making when considering new editors, reminding them of Elsevier’s I&D goals and being flexible around job sharing for new editors.

This is just one example Elsevier’s engagement-driven and often pragmatic approach to driving gender equity both as an organization and within the research community, leading to real gains over the past few years. It’s an approach that has led to Elsevier winning the prestigious Women of the Future opens in new tab/window Corporate Award in recognition of how our company uses content, data and analytics, and how we network to advance inclusion, diversity and equity in research and healthcare.

The awards were presented in a ceremony Wednesday evening in London.

Elsevier CEO Kumsal Bayazit, who has made it her personal mission to advance gender equity by establishing Elsevier’s Inclusion & Diversity Advisory Board, noted:

Inclusion and diversity is at the heart of the way we work, think and run our business, and we believe strongly in the need for recognition and visibility to support opportunities for talented women in the UK and globally. We’re thrilled to receive the Women of the Future award!

The Women of the Future Awards were founded in 2006 by Pinky Lilani, CBE DL opens in new tab/window, to provide a platform to celebrate talented women in the UK, building a community of leaders who collaborate to create a space for the next generation of women professionals to thrive. The annual corporate award recognizes organizations that are committed to positive social change, building a public debate around the contributions of women and supporting young female leaders.

Kumsal continued:

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our Inclusion & Diversity Advisory Board members, who have helped to guide us in our journey over the past two and half years to drive greater gender equity through broadening participation for women in the research ecosystem as well as supporting career progression both internally and externally and embedding gender dimensions in the research itself. I am encouraged by the significant measurable improvement in the engagement and advocacy of our colleagues over the last three years, which has also resulted in valued recognition for our company on diversity and career growth.

Mirit Eldor, Executive Vice President for Strategy, Secretary of Elsevier’s Inclusion & Diversity Advisory Board and Executive Sponsor of Elsevier’s Gender Equity Taskforce, was there to receive the award:

It was an incredibly proud moment to meet and celebrate with so many impressive women contributing to society in so many ways. The judges commented that it is unusual to see a company with such a strong focus on improving gender equity both internally and externally — this is what made us stand out.

How Elsevier is driving gender equity

• We spearheaded the development of a new self-reported Gender, Race & Ethnicity scheme opens in new tab/window, which has been adopted by the Joint Commitment for Action on I&D in Publishing to more accurately understand the demographic diversity of authors, editorial decision makers and reviewers.

• Since 2015, we have developed a series of gender reports that equip decision-makers with data by discipline and country on how the representation of women is evolving, identifying gaps and real progress to support future interventions.

• Elsevier has been a partner of the Gender Summits opens in new tab/window for more than a decade, helping us to understand the context and challenges women face, and how we can drive action to advance women in science and embed the sex-and-gender dimension in research.

• Through transparent reporting to our Inclusion & Diversity Advisory Board, we strive to drive progress in areas such as career progression, participation in the research ecosystem and integrating the sex-and-gender dimension in research.

• Elsevier created the world’s first complete 3D representation of the female anatomy through our Complete Anatomy platform, taking a major step towards tackling the unconscious bias that exists across the medical profession.

• We established a Gender Equity Taskforce with the launch of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to drive gender equity both internally and externally in areas such as gender analytics to inform decision-makers, conference and editorial board diversity, bias in peer review, and sex-and-gender analysis in research.

• The Elsevier Foundation contributes to partnerships to support women researchers, including investing in a new Early Career partnership portfolio opens in new tab/window.

Creating an inclusive workplace

• We set a goal to have representation in senior leadership that reflects our overall population and the broader community. This is an active area of focus in recruitment and internal development. We take steps such as insisting on balanced shortlists, debiasing job descriptions, and reviewing gender balance in succession plans to drive continued progress across all elements of diversity.

• We implemented the Developing Talent for Gender Equity program to support gender equity in senior leadership by strengthening the internal talent pipeline. The program will also ensure individuals with an aspiration to develop into senior leadership gain the education, exposure and education to enable them to realize their ambitions and create a community of peers, mentors, sponsors and role models to share leadership experiences and provide support.

In all our efforts, we continue to measure our progress.

Learn more about I&D at Elsevier

Learn about our Inclusion & Diversity Advisory Board