PEOPLE
GENDER QUALITY IN THESUPPLY CHAIN
COS stands for equality and empowerment. Throughout our direct business partners and product manufacturing partners, we contribute to the work of over 128,000 workers in 12 different countries. Each country has a unique culture, societal norms, legal contexts, and levels of gender equality, resulting in women being more likely to be unemployed or have insecure contracts.
Having proper employment is one of the most important means for women’s empowerment and independence. With almost 64% of the workers in the factories in our supply chain being women, we have a responsibility to ensure that they are safe, healthy, and empowered in their everyday workplace.
We have been collaborating with global partners, governments, and local policymakers, as well as our suppliers, to set clear goals and initiatives to ensure our supply chain meets local laws and International Labour Organisation standards, while striving to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
To create further impact, we have aligned with H&M Group and Plan International’s strategy to identify four key focus areas to reach our ambition to achieve gender equality in our supply chain: health and safety, career and development, equal pay, and representation.
WOMEN ARE SAFE
Our vision is that women should always be safe and healthy in their everyday workplace.
Access to external aid has improved by 3% versus last year, with 91% of all COS supplier factories providing access to external aid.
WOMEN CAN ADVANCE
One of our core ambitions is that women are empowered and get the right support to become leaders.
The gender gap in supervisor roles is -10% – an improvement of +5% versus the previous year.
WOMEN HAVE EQUAL PAY
At COS, we stand for equal pay for work of equal value.
The gender pay gap in the COS supply chain is -8.4% – the same versus the previous year.
WOMEN HAVE EQUAL PAY
Our goal for 2030 is that women in our supply chain are empowered, fairly treated and safe in their everyday workplace. That means:
THE REPORT
To find out more about our progress towards creating the future we want to see, download the 2022/23 report here.
THE COS TOTE: FOR EQUALITY AND EMPOWERMENT
In addition to the above work and to further support women in our wider communities, we have designed a special-edition COS tote bag. 100% of the profits from the sale of the tote are invested in partnerships with charitable organisations and NGOs delivering community projects to address key gender equality issues in communities surrounding our supply chain. Find out more about the first two initiatives that have benefitted from the funding in Bangladesh and Türkiye below.
YANINDAYIZ DERNEGI, TÜRKIYE
We work with Yanindayiz Dernegi to fund the delivery of trainings to improve awareness and understanding of gender equality and gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) issues in the workplace and beyond, by activating men’s participation in the discussion. Our goal? To reach approximately 5000 female and male workers as well as their family members and the wider community.
CARE BANGLADESH
COS funds the establishment and delivery of women-friendly spaces in local communities close to our supply chain, in partnership with CARE Bangladesh. These spaces provide education on GBVH, stress management, and nutrition, as well as psychosocial support and other counselling to over 4000 women and 1000 family members in their communities.