Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) today rang out its opening trading bell for the global ‘Ring the Bell for Gender Equality’ for the third year in a row. The symbolic gesture was made as an expression of solidarity for female empowerment alongside over 90 stock exchanges from all around the world.
Ring the Bell for Gender Equality was carried out in conjunction with International Women’s Day, an event which falls upon 8th March every year with this year’s theme being “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights” . The Exchange rang the trading bell at the beginning of the trading session at exactly ten o’clock in the morning, gathering all ADX employees including the numerous women who make up about 44% of its workforce.
In a speech marking the occasion, His Excellency Khalifa Salem Al Mansouri, Chief Executive of Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, said: “We are delighted to ring the ADX trading bell today in solidarity with 90 exchanges around the world, as an expression of the importance of gender equality. Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange supports advancement of equality between the sexes through empowering women, in line with UAE efforts to utilise the broad capabilities that women contribute to the nation, which qualify them to reach the highest leadership positions.”
Al-Mansouri added: “ADX affirms its solidarity with the international community through the Ring the Bell for Gender Equality initiative and the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, a forward-looking agenda for women’s rights and female empowerment across numerous fields. The Exchange seeks to align its work engaging with women across the private sector, improving its business processes, increasing productivity and taking greater measures to improve gender equality for financial markets.”
The Ring the Bell for Gender Equality initiative for 2020 aims to shed light on the issue of empowering women in the workplace, market and society, drawing attention to the importance of nurturing female talent and activating women’s abilities across all aspects of work and society. The initiative also helps in the formulation of a comprehensive agenda that delivers a positive future for female empowerment, overcoming any obstacles to equal participation across public and private sectors.
ADX is participating in the Ring the Bell for Gender Equality initiative alongside many major international institutions that the Exchange is a member of, such as the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) and the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative.
According to the latest statistics, by the end of 31st December 2019, the number of females working at ADX amounted to 68 out of a total 154 employees, making up 44% of ADX staff.
It is worthy to note that the number of female investors in ADX by March 8th 2020 reached around 297 thousand constituting 36% of the total number of investors on the Exchange. Female investors’ market value of shares by March 2020 reached around AED 18 billion with number of shares they hold to around 3.7 billion.
