The 16th annual conference will take place on 25 and 26 March 2025 in Prague, Early Birds tickets are on sale.
The Public Benefit Organisation Business & Professional Women CR (BPWCR) is organising a two-day conference to highlight the persistent gender pay gap, the need to strengthen women’s financial security and find ways to make the most of women’s and men’s potential – Equal Pay Day. This event, the largest of its kind not only in the Czech Republic but also in Europe, will take place on 25-26 March 2025, traditionally at the Clarion Congress Hotel Prague, and its main theme will be “Potential“.
The elegant visuals have been prepared by the VML agency, which is a partner of the Equal Pay Day conference for the third year. “For the next edition of the event, we wanted a distinctive visual, so we deliberately moved it towards minimalism as much as possible. The elegant glamour-style design attracts attention, emphasises the professionalism of the event and captures its overall atmosphere. Thanks to its simplicity, it will also work well in other formats,” say Aleš Pokorný, Head of Art VML and Dušan Koutský, Head of Copy VML.
The visual aesthetic works with two distinctive colours – black and red. Both are the signifying colours of the conference, and therefore have been given the most space in the visual. The conference theme “Potential” is again written into the visual in a minimalist way in the form of a headline.
Despite the fact that the topic of equal pay and equal opportunities is getting more and more attention, among other things in connection with the implementation of ESG and the Transparent Remuneration Directive, women in the Czech Republic receive on average 17.7% less pay for their work than men. A number of factors contribute to this difference, such as the fact that women are more often employed in lower-paid professions and, on the contrary, are less represented in the top management of companies; they also suffer a significant loss in income due to the time spent on maternity and parental leave, etc. In general, equal conditions and opportunities still do not prevail in the labour market, and women’s participation in the economic and political life of the country is also still weak. A systemic solution remains elusive, there is a lack of political will and, in the meantime, the Czech Republic is falling into the ranks of third world countries in this area.
“According to this year’s World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index report, our country ranks 104th out of 146 countries included in the index. Unfortunately, we are last among the EU countries, which are otherwise prime movers and hold the top positions. We are also ahead of countries that we would not have predicted without knowing the data, such as Ethiopia, Madagascar or Bangladesh, which is really a call to action,” says Lenka Št’astná, founder and president of BPWCR, who has been actively involved in this area since 2010. She reminds us that as recently as 2020-21, we were ranked 78th in the Gender Gap Index. “The main thing dragging us down is that we are failing to increase the number of women in decision-making positions, whether in business or politics. And it’s not that women are less ambitious or confident than men. Women have enormous potential that remains untapped, to the detriment not only of themselves but of society as a whole. At the conference, we will also discuss the potential of the private sector to move this issue forward and learn from those who are already doing so,” explains Lenka Št’astná.
The conference is accompanied by a media campaign highlighting various topics related not only to women’s economic potential, but also to education and the overall empowerment of women in the labour market and society as a whole. Their urgency is also highlighted by a distinctive visual identity, which was chosen for this year’s event in order to attract the attention of younger generations, who need to be involved in the public debate.
Ticket sales have already been launched on the conference website www.equalpayday.cz/vstupenky/ and until the end of December it is possible to buy them in the Early Birds mode and save up to CZK 2,000 excluding VAT.
