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  • Our global education initiative, Educating Women & Girls, strives to provide and improve educational and training opportunities for women and girls in the developing countries where we live and work.

Vital Voices

  • Women Can Campaign Launched for International Women's Week At Diane von Furstenberg Studio. 

supporting women leaders

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf

  March 6, 2008

ExxonMobil Foundation recognizes International Women’s Day as a founding partner in the ‘Women Can’ Campaign.

 ExxonMobil Foundation is expanding its efforts to empower women leaders in developing countries by participating in a unique new campaign called “Women Can.”   The campaign name echoes the words of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who became Liberia’s —and Africa’s — first elected female head of state two years ago.   As her success shows, women can overcome barriers to help build stronger, healthier communities. 

Along with partners Vital Voices Global Partnership, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, advertising agency Euro RSCG and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, ExxonMobil Foundation is participating in the Women Can campaign to support its efforts to:

  • Train, mentor and build leadership capacity of additional emerging women leaders.
  • Challenge organizations currently investing in women's leadership to double their investments.
  • Honor innovative and impactful investments to women's leadership to inspire others to engage in and champion this campaign.
  • Build public awareness for this cause and spread the message that "women can" change the world for the better.

ExxonMobil’s ongoing involvement with expanding educational opportunities for women and girls were key factors in the Foundation’s decision to support Women Can.

"We’ve seen first-hand how investing in the education and leadership training of women can provide powerful, long-lasting economic, health and social benefits throughout the developing world," said Lorie Jackson, head of ExxonMobil's Educating Women and Girls Initiative.

Since 2005, ExxonMobil has invested more than $11 million in the Educating Women and Girls Initiative — funds that have been used to provide leadership and business skills training, vocational education and teacher education/training; construct and rehabilitate schools; and support efforts to engage community support for girls’ education in developing countries. Research shows that educating women and girls yields the highest rates of return of any community investments available in the developing world — many of these regions important to ExxonMobil.

In 2008, ExxonMobil launched a $1.5 million project with Vital Voices to empower women in Africa to become leaders in business and politics and to be effective advocates for removing key impediments to social and economic advances for women. ExxonMobil is also investing in a research project conducted by the International Center for Research on Women to evaluate the efficacy of a range of leadership training programs for women in the developing world.