From left, Graduate Institute students, Boroka Godley and Dhwani Nagpal, accept their second place award on behalf of their team from Ambassador Mikael Anzén, Permanent Representative of Sweden to the World Trade Organization. Photo © ITC.

Four Graduate Institute students won second place in the “Youth in Business: Pitching for Gender Equality” competition, launched by the International Trade Centre (ITC) ahead of International Women’s Day 8 March 2019. The competition asked business students from around the world to submit a video pitch of an innovative idea to support women entrepreneurs.  

For the competition, Boroka Godley, Dhwani Nagpal, Cassandra Bragdon and Kaoru Inoue – all members of the Institute’s Feminist Collective – developed the “Wage Gap Meter”, a certification system consisting of a colour-coded label that displays a manufacturer’s level of pay equality. The Meter, ranging from green (for perfect equality in pay) to red (for perfect inequality), would be printed on packaging and labels for manufactured products. In addition to promoting gender equality, the students’ goal was that the Meter would hold businesses and organisations accountable for their unequal pay scales.   

“We are proud that our ‘Wage Gap Meter’ was awarded second place in the ITC video competition”, said Boroka Godley, one of the team’s members. “We believe that our idea has the potential to help women all over the world achieve gender equality in the workplace, and we look forward to taking it further. We are very grateful to the ITC for having given us this opportunity, as we are determined to play a role in the elimination of the gender wage gap!” 

As second place winners, the team will be able to participate in training, capacity building and expert advice from the ITC’s Innovation Lab, SheTrades and the SME Trade Academy. 

Also shortlisted in the competition was another Graduate Institute video entry on “Women’s Leadership Trips”, from students Kaleigh Carlson and Karun Gopinath.