Organon launches a drive to make International Women’s Day an annual holiday to give women a chance to put their health needs first
Women’s health company, Organon, is giving all its employees a day off on 8th March and is issuing a call to action to all employers in the UK to join forces and do the same
LONDON, UK — Organon (NYSE: OGN), a global women’s health company, is designating International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8th March as a day to recognise the growing health disparities that women face that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since its inception, IWD has focused on accelerating gender parity. Organon recognises the need for a global effort to address her health and understands that it needs to start with its own employees by giving them paid time off to attend to their own health needs. The company is also inviting organisations in the UK and across the globe to join in raising awareness of the inequity in women’s health and to adopt initiatives that help women prioritise their health.
Women have a terrible tendency of deprioritising their own health. According to one survey, 78% of women put off taking care of their own health because they are too busy looking after their loved ones.1 Women make the bulk of the health appointments for the rest of the family and when asked to rank the amount of time spent managing the health of various family members children came first, then pets, older relatives, spouses or significant others, and then (finally) themselves.1 Mothers take an average of 15 days to arrange a health appointment for themselves versus 5 days for children and 7 days for a pet.1 It appears that despite advances in equality, the majority of household chores still fall to women and that women have just 17 minutes to themselves each day on average, with 51% saying that they have no time at all.2
“The last few years have been challenging for everyone, but the burden of the pandemic has fallen disproportionately on women who may have had to take on more than the lion’s share of looking after their family and home schooling whilst also in many cases working full time,” said Simon Nicholson, Managing Director of Organon UK&ENI Cluster (UK, Ireland, Israel, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia & Iceland). “At Organon we are proud to say thank you by giving everyone time to recharge and put women’s health first and we are urging other companies across the UK and the world to join us. Women tend to neglect their own health needs because they’re too busy looking after everyone else. It’s time for that to change.”
“Organon launched with a commitment to listen to the needs of women, and we have heard that women are finding it harder than ever to make the time to care for even their most basic health needs,” said Kevin Ali, chief executive officer, Organon. “As a company investing in innovation to improve women’s health, I felt a responsibility to address this within our own global community of almost 9,500 employees. This year, the symbolic action we are taking is to encourage all our people to spend this day off to make a commitment to their own health or the health of the women in their lives, whether that’s going to the doctor, taking stock of their own wellbeing or reflecting on how to make a change.”
Organon urges all organisations to join them in this mission and to be part of the solution. Visit hereforherhealth.com to learn more.
About Organon
Organon is a global healthcare company formed through a spin-off from Merck, (NYSE: MRK) known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, to focus on improving the health of women throughout their lives. Organon has a portfolio of more than 60 medicines and products across a range of therapeutic areas. Led by the women’s health portfolio coupled with an expanding biosimilars business and stable franchise of established medicines, Organon’s products produce strong cash flows that will support investments in innovation and future growth opportunities in women’s health. In addition, Organon is pursuing opportunities to collaborate with biopharmaceutical innovators looking to commercialize their products by leveraging its scale and presence in fast growing international markets.
Organon has a global footprint with significant scale and geographic reach, world-class commercial capabilities, and approximately 9,500 employees with headquarters located in Jersey City, New Jersey.
For more information, visit http://www.organon.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Instagram.
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