— Initiative Includes Digital Pledge and PSA Video Featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, Julianne Moore, Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, Gabby Douglas and More

Dubai, UAE: March 8, 2017– The Tory Burch Foundationtoday announced that it will launch a global campaign, #EmbraceAmbition, to encourage women to embrace ambition. The initiative kicks off today to coincide with International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month. Inspired by Tory’s personal experience as a woman and an entrepreneur, the campaign aims to address the double standard that exists around ambition, which is often seen as a great attribute in men and as a negative one in women.

A cornerstone of the multifaceted campaign is a public service announcement (PSA) video celebrating ambition, and featuring celebrities and business leaders from diverse industries including entertainment (Gwyneth Paltrow, Julianne Moore, Kerry Washington, Chris Pine, Reese Witherspoon), fashion (Anna Wintour), sports (Billie Jean King, Gabby Douglas, Laila Ali), business (Eric Schmidt, Sheryl Sandberg, Anne Finucane), philanthropy (Melinda Gates) and more.

Forty years since the beginning of the modern women’s rights movement, the numbers associated with women’s parity with men in the workplace are still appallingly low. Only four percent of CEOs in Fortune 500 companies are women and, similarly, women hold less than 20 percent of board seats. In government, the numbers are no different. Women make up about 19 percent of Congress and account for less than 10 percent of top national leaders globally.

“While there are systematic impediments to women’s success in business, cultural mores are also to blame,” explained Tory Burch, founder of the Tory Burch Foundation. “In one of my first interviews, a reporter mentioned the word “ambitious,” and I commented that the word annoyed me. A friend of mine said, “You should never shy away from that word.” She was right. I realized that I had bought into the stigma that women shouldn’t be ambitious – that it was unattractive. That creates a harmful double standard that we must overcome in order to achieve equality.”

As part of the campaign, visitors to EmbraceAmbition.org will be invited to take a digital pledge to #EmbraceAmbition, challenge friends to take the pledge and share their ambition on social media using the hashtag. There will also be content and tools on confidence and goal-setting as well as interviews with successful women about ambition.

“Most women are ambitious, but many are afraid to show it,” said Laurie Fabiano, President of the Tory Burch Foundation. “Our goal is for women to take a moment to think about whether they’ve been hiding their ambition and to question that.”

Ways to #EmbraceAmbition:

• Take the digital pledge and challenge your friends to do the same using the hashtag #Embrace Ambition
• Watch and share the video PSA