A thriving workplace depends on the collective strengths of our employees, and to be successful, individuals must feel represented, valued, and respected. Cigna is committed to fair pay and opportunity for all employees, regardless of gender, race or ethnicity – and that’s why Cigna has established has set an ambitious goal to reach gender parity among leadership within five years.

To mark this commitment, Cigna recently signed on to the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles, which are designed to empower women in the workplace, the marketplace and the community. Cigna is the first U.S.-based company in its industry to commit to these globally-recognized principles.

“We know that 60 percent of people entering the health care field today are women, so it is especially important that we continue to recruit, develop and advance talented women all over the world,” said Susan Stith, VP of Diversity, Inclusion, Civic Affairs and the Cigna Foundation.

Cigna also recently joined more than 100 other companies nationwide that have signed on to Paradigm for Parity®, a five-point action plan designed to hold organizations accountable for increasing the representation of women in senior leadership.

“To hold ourselves accountable to do more, we established a bold goal to reach gender parity in our leadership pipeline by increasing the representation of women at our director and senior director levels to 50 percent by 2024,” Stith said.

Cigna has a number of strategic initiatives in place that focus on developing and advancing women, such as continuing to support the purpose and promise of 11 executive-sponsored and employee-led resource groups, including the company’s largest, the Women Influencing and Networking group. Cigna is building even more programming to reach its gender parity goals, including expanding internal and external leadership development programs to provide skills to managers, women and ethnic minorities.

“Equitable practices including equal pay and opportunity, and an inclusive culture are vital for those here to feel welcomed and recognized,” Stith said. “Cigna is a place where everyone can feel that they belong, are treated with respect and dignity, and feel comfortable sharing their unique perspectives and ideas.”

Gender parity is one part of Cigna’s diversity and inclusion efforts. To learn more about Cigna’s diversity and inclusion strategies, click here.