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We’re in great company, with a total of 34 companies on this year’s list, including larger organizations like Adobe, Airbnb, Best Buy, The Clorox Company, Deutsche Bank, Nasdaq, PepsiCo, and Ralph Lauren Corporation. As a smaller standout we’re incredibly proud to be a two-time winner, particularly now when we believe our mental health programs answer a critical need for support at a time when our country is experiencing record rates of anxiety and too few clinicians to support the demand.

The Best Companies for Women to Advance List was established in 2020 to recognize organizations that have benefits, policies, and programs that are particularly beneficial for women to advance in the workplace. Companies were rated for their organization’s equality, representation, inclusion, and enablers, or those benefits and policies that help create and sustain equal representation.

As the founder and CEO, I truly believe that it is because of the leadership, creativity and grit of incredible women at BehaVR that we have found unique ways to harness the neurological power of VR, through various experiences that will address a broad range of needs around stress, anxiety, and fear. We feel proud to take on the enormous challenge of distributing high quality, high engagement mental health care at a scale that matters in our country — and to do it alongside a team that has developed a culture of celebrating and nurturing all talent. Further, to earn a spot alongside such an impressive list of brands is quite exciting at this inflection point in our growth.

The need for companies to commit to the “Parity Pledge” is even more necessary after the challenges of this past year. Cathrin Stickney, Parity.org founder and CEO, best clarified that need: “After a year that has erased all the corporate gains women made in the past several decades, there are still companies that are making progress to support women’s advancement at work. The companies on the 2021 list of Best Companies for Women to Advance are shining examples of taking action to help create equal representation, now. We hope more companies will follow their lead and help get women back into the workforce and advance in their careers.”

Companies on the 2021 list share many common best practices that are known to support women, such as work-from-home or telecommute options (97%), flexible working hours (94%), and equal paid family leave for men and women (88%). Nearly every company measures and reports on gender parity to the executive team (97%), and every single company regularly communicates their gender-parity values to employees, encourages men to take their full family leave, and has a zero-tolerance policy for harassment.

I’m very proud of the work we’re doing at BehaVR, and even more proud that we are and will continue to be committed to do our part to ensure gender parity at all levels of our business.