Developed by USAID and Georgetown University McDonough School of Business, the program delivers a best-in-class curriculum empowering key decisionmakers to effectively integrate gender equality initiatives across their corporate structure.

USAID’s Engendering Industries program supports organizations in male-dominated industries to increase gender equality in the workplace. The Gender Equity Executive Leadership Program is a key component in USAID’s approach, as it builds the capacity of organizational leaders to identify critical gender equality gaps and implement interventions that directly increase opportunities for women within the company. The Gender Equity Executive Leadership Program also complements the work of Engendering Industries’ change management coaches, who employ proven tools and a customized best practices framework to help partner organizations introduce gender equality initiatives at each phase of the employee life cycle.

About the Program

The Gender Equity Executive Leadership Program, developed by USAID and Georgetown University McDonough School of Business, delivers a best-in-class curriculum that spans the breadth of the employee life cycle. The course empowers the employees of partner organizations—including administrators, operational area managers, and other key decisionmakers at all levels—to effectively integrate gender equality initiatives within their corporate structure.

In-person and Virtual Learning

The program’s courses are taught in-person and virtually over 12 months by Georgetown University professors to three mid- to senior-level managers from human resources, operations, and other departments. Participants from each organization are carefully selected through a recruitment process conducted by USAID’s Engendering Industries experts, in coordination with organizational leadership. The aim of the program is to train key decisionmakers in partner organizations on how to implement gender equity-focused policies and practices.

Building Skills to Promote Gender Equality

Each program module teaches participants how to:

• Analyze existing company policies and practices and create action plans to address gaps;
• Conduct employee satisfaction surveys;
• Collect sex-disaggregated data; and
• Conduct salary gap analyses.

Throughout the course, instructors help participants strengthen their organizational strategy and change management skills, as well as communication and persuasion skills, so that upon graduation they are fully prepared to make the business case for gender equality to their executive leadership.

USAID complements the Gender Equity Executive Leadership Program instruction by pairing each partner organization with an expert change management and gender equality coach. The coach delivers tailored technical support to partner organizations as they work through the program to analyze gaps, design and implement interventions, and monitor their progress toward gender equality and strengthening business outcomes. Using a customized scorecard tool, participants and their dedicated coaches help organizations make strategic, data-driven decisions to prioritize gender equality interventions, and track the progress of these interventions and their impact on organizational performance.

View the Results

Developing a Global Cadre of Equality Champions

Through the Gender Equity Executive Leadership Program structure, USAID is developing leaders with skills to advance gender equality in their organizations. The program actively harnesses this cadre of leaders by fostering their roles as mentors and speakers to others in their workplaces, communities, countries, and the energy and water sectors globally.