Equality – what happens when the issue is out of the news?
International Women’s Day was held on 8 March 2021. Many organizations took the opportunity to publicly share their own position on the topic of equal rights for women. Social media was full of inspiring stories and pledges of commitment to equal opportunities. But what happens when this topic disappears from the news again? What happens when no one is looking?
Equality – a top priority on the leadership agenda
On a day like International Women’s Day, CEOs and executives from companies around the world make bold statements professing their commitment to equality for women in the workplace. For some, it’s a very serious matter. For others, it’s just PR. Whatever the sentiment, this topic is certainly a top priority on any forward-thinking leadership agenda. And yet, when International Women’s Day is over, we are left wondering where we will actually find equality behind the words. Here are a few observations and further thoughts that focus primarily on women’s equality. Other minorities, which are not explicitly mentioned or discussed here, are of course also affected by the issue of equality.
Culture cannot be delegated
If leadership has not already internalized the issue of women’s equality and embedded it in the corporate culture, it tends to get “delegated” to HR in my experience. Senior management may have recognized that the issue is a priority, but not what it means for their personal behavior. Why not have the HR specialists come up with a concept on how to better advance women’s equality? That way, the company can show current and potential employees that they care about the issue as an organization. Unfortunately, this neglects the fact that you cannot delegate the topic if it is truly to become embedded in a corporate culture. Even the most effective and well-meaning of equality concepts help only if they are supported from the top.
Behavior comes before communication
In a next step, or even in parallel, the communications department is involved. It should report on role models and success stories as continuously as possible. In most cases, this happens far too early. For example before leadership behavior has actually changed and when there are still examples within the organization of unfair behavior towards women that have no consequences. The result is that any communication on the topic of equality appears untrustworthy. In fact, I often observe a sense of mistrust within the organization as soon as this topic is discussed.
Male part-timers need to be rebranded
In addition, I notice that the topic of equality is often approached from one side only. In the good intention to promote women, there is too much focus on vehicles and communication platforms that are primarily created for women only. Even though this is always done with the remark “men are also welcome,” there is often a lack of a strategic focus on involving men in the discussion. But there also needs to be forums and communication platforms that look at the issue of gender equality from a male perspective – alongside women. Some organizations are on this path, but many have much work to do before they successfully rebrand the male part-time employee.
Advancing women doesn’t just affect mothers
Last but not least, women’s equality doesn’t just affect mothers who want to have a career at the same time. There are also numerous women who don’t have a family and are still not on an equal footing with their male work colleagues. They are often given too little consideration, which in turn reinforces the one-sided view of equality and leads to certain women themselves also feeling excluded from this discussion.
What can companies do?
If a company truly wants to address the issue of women’s equality, the following principles will help:
1) Leadership is not afraid to bring the issue of equal opportunity fully to the table.
2) Leadership demonstrates with its behavior at all times that equal opportunity is the top priority.
3) Unfair behavior toward women has consequences. So does unfair behavior toward men (or other groups).
4) Men are equally included in the discussion of equality as women.
5) Non-mothers are included in the discussion of equality just as mothers are.
How equal opportunities for women are actually practiced and experienced in an organization will ultimately only become clear long after International Women’s Day is over. A true marker of success is that equal opportunities have become a genuine corporate value that is lived out even when no one is looking.
Some organizations are showing great progress, but there is still a lot to do. And it can only be done together.
