Gap Inc. Announces Landmark 2025 Goals to Drive Women’s Empowerment in Its Supply Chain

As part of celebrating Women’s History Month, Gap Inc. is pleased to highlight the significant milestone that over 800,000 women and girls have completed the P.A.C.E. (Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement) program. Gap Inc.’s P.A.C.E. program was founded in 2007 on the belief that all women deserve the opportunity to reach their full potential. Today, it is on track to achieve the ambitious goal of reaching 1 million individuals by 2022, operating in communities and factories in 17 countries where our clothes are made.

Participants in the P.A.C.E. curriculum often say that the life skills taught in the coursework have an immediate and tangible positive impact on their lives. Thi Thu Ha Ngyuen, who lives in Vietnam and is employed at the Vina Kyung Seung factory's finishing division, said that the life skills learned through P.A.C.E. helped her to express herself more confidently in daily life. “When I started to feel more confident as a woman, my life changed,” Nguyen said. Through P.A.C.E., Ha learned to better communicate with her family and express her need for assistance from her husband while establishing her career, managing a household, and raising two young daughters in a rural community. This is one story among thousands that demonstrates how P.A.C.E. gives women who make our clothes the knowledge and tools to change their lives.

Building on the momentum and success of P.A.C.E., Gap Inc. is joining forces with Business for Social Responsibility, ILO-IFC Better Work, and CARE to launch Empower@Work. This shared platform leverages its knowledge, skills, and networks to drive collective action to benefit women workers and gender equity in global supply chains. Empower@Work will focus on building and deploying sustainable, systemic, and scalable programs that promote gender equity in global supply chains.

“Gap Inc. is proud to be a founding member of Empower@Work, recognizing the opportunity it presents to reach millions of women with proven programming and tools they can use to uplift themselves and their families for generations to come,” said Mary Beth Laughton, President and CEO, Athleta. “To reinforce this commitment, Athleta and Gap brand are taking steps to have all the factories from which they source participate in Empower@Work women’s empowerment training by 2025.”