8 March 2019, Ljubljana – For the fifth consecutive year, a global collaboration across more than 80 stock exchanges around the world plan to ‘Ring the Bell for Gender Equality’, to celebrate International Women’s Day 2019. This year also the Ljubljana Stock Exchange joined the global movement and today at 9.15 the women of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange rang the opening bell in support for gender equality.

The events are a partnership between IFC, Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative, UN Global Compact, UN Women, the World Federation of Exchanges and Women in ETFs, to raise awareness about the business case for women’s economic empowerment and the opportunities for the private sector to advance gender equality and sustainable development.

The UN Women’s theme for International Women’s Day 2019 is ‘Think equal, build smart, innovate for change’. The theme focuses on innovative ways in which the private sector can advance gender equality and women’s empowerment, particularly in the areas of social protection systems, access to public services, and sustainable infrastructure.

The Ljubljana Stock Exchange is proud to participate in such an important event and is pleased that the event has reached such a global scale. In March 2018, a record 65 exchanges rang their bells for gender equality, and this year looks set to be even bigger, with more than 80 exchanges confirmed as taking part in raising awareness about the importance of gender equality to both business and sustainable development.

We firmly believe that gender equality and promoting diversity in a company creates better work environment and improves the company’s success. Thus, the Ljubljana Stock Exchange has high gender diversity and equality of its workforce, having diverse management and supervisory boards and women representing 62% of the workforce.