HERSHEY, Pa.—The Hershey Company has been recognized as the No. 1 top female-friendly company by Forbes Magazine, according to a news release. The confectionary company topped the list of Forbes’ "World's Top Female Friendly Companies," spearheading a roster of 300 honorees. The company has 48.1% gender diversity around the world, 37.4% of the company’s “people leaders” globally are women and the company’s board of directors has 42% gender diversity.

"Guided by The Pathways Project, we continue to advance progress around gender equity—a core component of our greater DEI strategy," said Alicia Petross, chief diversity officer of The Hershey Company. "At Hershey, we are more than female friendly—we are female forward. From internal initiatives, such as pay equity, our hiring and development strategy and women's business resource group, to external initiatives, such as the International Women's Day HerSHEy's bar and our ongoing community engagement efforts to support all youth, this recognition is a testament to our continued commitment to gender equity across our organization."

Hershey has made several strides toward a female-inclusive culture, including forming a women's business resource group, expanding family-focused benefits like fertility benefits and paid paternity leave and establishing career development programs for underrepresented groups.

Hershey’s Pathways Project plans to achieve aggregate dollar-for-dollar pay equity for salaried employees worldwide and seeks to increase representation of Hershey's employee base so that 47-50% of employees are women and 30-40% are people of color. Similarly, the company aspires to have 15-22% people leader roles occupied by people of color and 40-42% by women.