CaixaBank will acknowledge the careers of 14 leading women in Spain in a new edition of its “Women in Business Awards”

• Participants have until 21 June to submit entries for the 5th edition of these awards, which have been consolidated for their boost to diversity and their contribution to promoting gender equality in Spanish society.
• CaixaBank will choose the national winner of the award from among the winners of the regional stage, who will be one of the Spanish representatives at the international IWEC Awards.

CaixaBank has launched the fifth edition of the CaixaBank Women in Business Awards, which recognise the talent and the professional excellence of 14 leading female entrepreneurs in Spain with standout careers, strategic vision, and transformative innovation and leadership skills.

Participants have until 21 June to submit candidacies for these awards, which have been consolidated in recent years for their boost to diversity and their contribution to promoting gender equality in Spanish society.

In 2021, the CaixaBank Women in Business Awards will recognise 14 women in the regional stage, one for each of the bank's regional management units, and the national winner will be chosen from among these, to be one of the two representatives at the 2021 IWEC Awards, within the framework of the International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC), the worldwide network of female business leaders who cooperate on a global level to help to create and distribute business wealth.

Submissions will be received until 21 June

The term to submit entries for the “2021 CaixaBank Women in Business Awards” is open until 21 June. The candidates must fulfil the conditions established by IWEC, including, being majority shareholders of their company and being actively involved in the daily operations of the business. Furthermore, the company must be at least three years old, have minimum annual earnings equivalent to 1.5 million dollars and show a commitment to honesty, equity, objectivity and accountability.

In the regional stage, the jury, formed by the CaixaBank Diversity Committee – in turn made up of directorial members of the management committee and by various leaders of diversity projects – will acknowledge one manager for each of the bank's 14 regional management units.

Next, in the national stage, the national winner will be chosen out of 14 regional winners, to be one of the Spanish representatives at the IWEC Awards, succeeding Inés Juste, Chair of Grupo Juste; Rocío Hervella, founder and CEO of Prosol; Arancha Manzanares, Vice-President of Ayesa; and Lina Mascaró, Chair of Grupo Mascaró, the national winners of the last four editions of the “CaixaBank Women in Business Awards”.

CaixaBank has also taken its “Women in Business Awards” to its subsidiary BPI, with the aim of also championing diversity and gender equality in Portugal, recognising the careers of leading businesswomen in the country. The winner will be the Portuguese representative for the IWEC Awards from BPI.

The "CaixaBank Businesswoman Community"

All the winners of the “Women in Business Awards” are invited to participate in the “CaixaBank Woman Entrepreneur Community”, a virtual community, operational through a private space in LinkedIn, that has been set up as a platform to share knowledge, ideas and experiences, and a meeting point to establish professional connections between a group of female managers, who stand out for their careers, strategic vision, capacity of innovation and transformational leadership.

The platform offers an extensive repository of information on female business and leadership, adapted to the interests of participants, and enables a participatory forum in which the winning businesswomen can exchange knowledge, learning from the best practices that have been adopted in each of the businesses represented.

The Community also offers access to exclusive experiences, such as forums, debates, conferences and domestic and international events, with which it aims to contribute to the development and leadership of women in the business world.

Wengage, CaixaBank's commitment to equality

Diversity, meritocracy, equal opportunities and talent recognition are some of the pillars of CaixaBank's corporate culture. Under these premises, it works with a commitment to be a pacesetter for its employees, promoting inclusion and participation and bolstering projects that promote equality, both within the company and across the whole of society. In fact, 41.7% of managerial positions at CaixaBank are held by women (at the close of 2020), and it has a public commitment to reach 43% in 2021. Furthermore, the Board of Directors is made up of 40% women, one of the highest ratios of the sector.

CaixaBank's Wengage diversity programme is a cross-disciplinary project developed by people from all areas of CaixaBank, based on meritocracy and the promotion of equal opportunities, which works to foster and visualise gender, functional and generational diversity. Wengage includes internal measures to foster flexibility and work-life balance, to raise awareness regarding diversity and to strengthen the role of women, with training programmes and female mentoring plans, through which female managers will guide other professionals in developing their careers. 

Wengage also develops external initiatives for customers and society, based on championing the diversity and equal opportunities in 3 fields of action: leadership and entrepreneurship, innovation and education, and sport.

Furthermore, CaixaBank has had an Equality Plan since January 2020 to promote the principles of equal opportunities and diversity in work teams, increase the presence of women in managerial positions and strengthen measures to enhance the work-life balance. The plan features the scope of gender in managerial development programs and in recruitment and training processes, and the fostering of teleworking and flexibility. 

CaixaBank is associated with the international programme Target Gender Equality and the Women’s Empowerment Principles, of the United Nations; and the Diversity Charter, promoting equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory measures.

Moreover, from 2018, CaixaBank is part of the EJE&CON “Good Practices for the Talent Management and the improvement of companies competitivity Code”, committing to foster the presence of women in executive positions, and it works actively for its international development. CaixaBank is also associated with the STEAM Alliance for Female Talent “Girls on the Science Stand”, an initiative led by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training to promote STEAM careers in girls and young women.

Recognition to diversity efforts

As a result of this commitment, CaixaBank has received recognition as the world's best bank for gender equality according to the international 2021 Bloomberg Index, and it also holds first position in Spain in the EWoB Gender Diversity Index.

It also boasts distinctions such as the Equality in Business Badge (DIE), managed by the Women's Institute, and has been recognised by the Másfamilia Foundation with EFR Certification (Family Responsible Company).

Among other recognitions, CaixaBank received the 25th anniversary FEDEPE Award (the Spanish Federation of Female Managers, Executives, Professionals and Entrepreneurs), and in 2020 the Foundation for Diversity awarded CaixaBank for “Best practice of a large company 2020” for its diversity programme, Wengage.

The IWEC Awards

The International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge is a worldwide network of female business leaders who nurture company ownership and cooperate on a global level with the goal of creating and distributing wealth in the business world.

Every year, within the framework of its Annual Conference, IWEC hands out prestigious awards in recognition and support of businesswomen all over the world. Among other aspects, the IWEC awards aim to increase the awareness, credibility and responsibility of businesswomen, so that they can represent a major and decisive element in the development of the 21st century global economy.

The first edition of these awards was held in Barcelona in February 2007; subsequently, they were held in New York (2008), New Delhi (2009), Cape Town (2010), New York (2011), Barcelona (2012), Lima (2013), Stockholm (2014), Istanbul (2015), Brussels (2016), Seattle (2017), Shanghai (2018), New Delhi (2019), and online in 2020.

Since its inception in 2007, the International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC) conference has rewarded the careers of 384 businesswomen from 42 countries. The global aggregated turnover of the companies run by these women stands above 35 billion dollars and they employ 268,515 people.