To bring to light all manner of prejudice and the need to equalize opportunities available to men and women on the tennis courts of Brazil and everyday life, renewable energy leader ENGIE launched the publicity campaign “The weight of inequality”, fabricating a racquet 20 times heavier than used in actual matches.

The item, devised by ENGIE’s advertising agency ASIA, carries inscribed words like “misogyny”, “intolerance”, “chauvinism”, and “inequality”, to name a few, that connect with issues that sportswomen routinely face in sports.

“ENGIE is a tennis sponsor and we realize that the challenge that female layers face go far beyond the courts. This is why we decided to launch this campaign to discuss gender inequality in sports. At the company, we also invest in women’s inclusion and are under a global goal to attain parity in leadership positions by 2030” – Gil Maranhão, ENGIE Brasil’s Communication and Corporate Social Responsibility Officer.

The racquet was on display at the entrance to the 2024 Billie Jean King Cup, the main international women’s tennis competition, honoring one of the greatest athletes of all time, 80-year old US player Billie Jean King. The athlete began challenging gender-based dress codes in the 1950s and became a pioneer in the struggle for prize quality in sports competitions. The campaign also included athletes Bia Haddad, Carol Meligeni, Laura Pigossi, Ingrid Martins and Luisa Stefani, some of the top names in Brazilian tennis.

“This is a high-impact campaign and I’m glad to have my image associated with a company like ENGIE, which is concerned with issues as relevant as gender inequality in sports. The words inscribed on the racquet are strong and heavy, and consistent with the weight that we, as women, must face at all times and not just in sports. The campaign provided an opportunity to talk about our experience as women as connected with those words,” said tennis player Carol Meligeni.

“Even in 2024, women’s tennis still faces prejudice and mistrust on the part of some events organizers, sponsors, and the public at large. Hence our view that, when a women sets foot on a court, she faces far more than just an opponent – she faces several, as if carrying a huge additional weight. This is why we came up with this racquet, a symbol of disrespect, intolerance, lack of support, and fewer sponsorships and tournaments that female tennis players face,” said ASIA co-founder and CCO Vico Benevides.

ENGIE invests in gender equality initiatives

ENGIE is pledged to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and a signatory of the Business Coalition for Racial and Gender Equality. The initiative includes a set of practices that, in addition to valuing women, also involves mentoring and constant skills-building for the purposes of career development
At the base of the process, certain projects have been creating opportunities to integrate workers based on technical jobs historically allocated to men. One illustrative case is “Women on the Field”, and action that ENGIE implemented in 2021 and that has been increasing the presence of women in gas pipeline operation and maintenance
This year, the company launched the second edition of its Trainee Program, one of whose purposes is to increase the number of women in leadership roles. Out of the first class, which ended last year and was entirely made up of women, all engineers were hired. This year, the Program had over 3,000 applicants, from which 24 were selected, including 21 women engineers.

The company also supports female enterprise initiatives based on its “Mulheres do nosso Bairro” (“Women of our Borough”) invitational, which offers close to one million Brazilian Reais to boost local businesses headed by women. The program also offers skills building courses free of charge, information on support networks, sensitization and awareness building actions against domestic violence, and initiatives in support of physical and mental health.