Economic Gender Gap Narrows, But More Work Remains

For employees and clients, PNC's Project 257 Day provides time to share perspectives on accelerating women's financial equality.

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / October 20, 2023 / The PNC Financial Services Group

PNC | Insights

The 2023 Global Gender Gap Report, published by the World Economic Forum, shows a 34% decrease to 169 years for women to catch up to men economically.¹ The drop from 257 years in the 2020 report marks impressive progress.

But 169 years is still too long to wait.

For the second consecutive year, PNC marked Sept. 14, the 257^th day of the year, to bring greater visibility to and help close the economic gender gap that inspired our Project 257: Accelerating Women's Financial Equality initiative. For employees, clients, and community partners, Project 257 Day is a time to gather and discuss progress to date as well as the challenges and opportunities that remain for women financial decision-makers.

More Than a Tagline

Accelerating women's financial equality is more than a tagline for Project 257. It is an outgrowth of nearly 20 years of dedicated efforts at PNC. Central to this work is the commitment of PNC's more than 50 designated Women's Business Development Market Champions in each of PNC's coast-to-coast markets and its more than 5,000 PNC-Certified Women's Business Advocates (WBAs).

PNC employees of any gender comprise our group of WBAs who, for two decades, have voluntarily completed proprietary training, applied for certification, and are fully committed to supporting the achievement of women financial decision-makers. PNC WBAs, year-round, provide information, resources, and tools that connect, engage, empower, and inspire women to achieve their personal and professional financial goals.

This includes, for example, our Women Who Achieve and Lessons in Leadership series and PNC's annual Women in Business Week, which marked its 13th year this past May. During Women in Business Week PNC employees connected with 20,000 women in meetings and events, and nearly 15,000 individuals registered for five informative, inspirational webcasts.

In addition to providing a variety of financial education resources and the attention of our WBAs to help women close the gender retirement gap and explore opportunities to generate alternative and investment income beyond their paychecks, there are multiple ways that PNC colleagues in more than 50 regional markets are collectively contributing to the effort to help close the economic gender gap. These activities are often in collaboration with others' efforts to advance women. A few examples include: