Women attending the American Samoa Businesses and Professional Women conference this week are being encouraged to get businesses in their communities to adopt the Women Empowerment Principles.
Developed through a partnership between the United Nations Global Compact and UN Women, the principles are designed to support companies in reviewing existing policies and practices or establishing new ones to realise women's empowerment.
The principles include establishing high-level corporate leadership for gender equality; treat all women and men fairly at work, respect and support human rights and nondiscrimination.
They are also to ensure the health, safety and well-being of all women and men workers, promote education, training and professional development for women, and measure and publicly report on progress to achieve gender equality.
A BPW International official Angela McLeod says the principles offer a way of increasing the financial bottom line of a business and it's something businesses can adopt.
