Press Release #GetFree

(New York, October 29, 2018) – UN Women’s HeForShe solidarity movement for gender equality has concluded its inaugural United States #GetFree University Tour, which brought ideas of gender equality directly to students at colleges and universities throughout the Northeast. At each stop, a dynamic conversation among students, faculty, gender experts and thought-leaders explored challenges and opportunities for getting more girls and women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects and careers. The Tour also brought a global conversation on gender to students, empowering them to explore their own understanding of gender equality.

 Building on the success of the #GetFree Tour in the UK and France, which engaged more than 140,000 students, UN Women partnered with HeForShe Thematic Champion, Exelon - one of the movement’s corporate champions that has made a concrete commitment to increase the number of women in STEM fields.

“We are excited to have joined forces with Exelon to bring this important conversation about gender equality directly to students in the U.S. and honored that these universities have opened their doors to welcome us and the #GetFree Tour,” said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. “Each generation of university students that emerges from these formative years of education is a new chance for the world to make progress.” 

“Advancing gender equality in the workforce is something we discuss at every level of our business, and it’s why the Exelon Foundation committed $3 million for initiatives to support STEM education for girls and increase female retention in our company,” said Exelon President and CEO and HeForShe Thematic Champion Chris Crane. “By helping to bring the HeForShe movement to universities, we hope to expand this conversation to the next generation and together take actionable steps toward a more equitable future.”
The tour reached approximately 85,000 students at the following five universities:

• Georgetown University,
• Morgan State University,
• University of Delaware, 
• Columbia University, and
• Stony Brook University. 

Georgetown University and Stony Brook University are part of the http://www.heforshe.org/impacthttp://www.heforshe.org/en/impact. 

The HeForShe team traveled in an environmentally friendly electric Proterra bus, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 
Since its launch on Sept. 20, 2014, millions of men from around the world and from all walks of life, including Heads of State, CEOs and global luminaries, , have committed to gender equality. HeForShe has been the subject of more than 2 billion conversations on social media, with off-line activities reaching every corner of the globe. 
 
UN Women is the UN entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. For more information, visit www.unwomen.org. 
 
Created by UN Women, the HeForShe solidarity movement for gender equality provides a systematic approach and targeted platform on which people of all genders can engage and become change agents towards the achievement of gender equality. HeForShe invites people of all gender to build on the work of the women’s movement as equal partners, crafting and implementing a shared vision of gender equality that will benefit all of humanity. For more information, visit http://www.heforshe.org/. 
 
Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC) is a Fortune 100 energy company with the largest number of electricity and natural gas customers in the U.S. Exelon does business in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Canada and had 2017 revenue of $33.5 billion. Exelon serves approximately10 million customers in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania through its Atlantic City Electric, BGE, ComEd, Delmarva Power, PECO and Pepco subsidiaries. Exelon is one of the largest competitive U.S. power generators, with more than 32,000 megawatts of nuclear, gas, wind, solar and hydroelectric generating capacity comprising one of the nation’s cleanest and lowest-cost power generation fleets. The company’s Constellation business unit provides energy products and services to approximately 2 million residential, public sector and business customers, including more than two-thirds of the Fortune 100. Follow Exelon on Twitter @Exelon.

Check out images from the #GetFree Tour here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/heforshe/