How to create gender equality in the workplace Focus on diversity during your hiring process. Create fair compensation and promotion procedures. Offer flexible and supportive benefits to employees. Create a Diversity and Inclusion Training Program.
World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License and in accordance with our Terms of Use. Steps Managers Can Take to Eliminate Gender Inequality in Organizations In 1872, Belva Ann Lockwood, a lawyer, persuaded the U.S. UU. Congress will pass a law that guarantees equal pay for women employed as federal employees.
Almost a century later, in 1963, the Equal Pay Act was passed, which established as law the payment of equal wages to men and women in all workplaces. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 granted equal rights to women in all areas of employment and was amended in 1991 to allow women to sue employers for sexual harassment. Despite the federal law against gender inequality and discrimination, it seeps into workplaces in an insidious way. While some progress has been made, gender inequality continues to persist even today.
Provide women with opportunities to learn new skills and gain more technological knowledge. It is estimated that between 40 and 160 million women around the world will move to more qualified jobs between now and 2030, which could lead them to more productive and better-paid jobs. Prioritizing women's progress also has many benefits for organizations, such as high revenue growth, greater innovation and greater customer satisfaction. Women are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, and coaching empowers them to remain and advance in the workforce.
But there is also a gender gap in access to coaching. Provide women with regular training sessions so they can develop skills and develop the mindset they need to thrive, especially in leadership roles. BetterUp Labs trained 440 women from different organizations and found that the training sessions helped them achieve great advances in self-awareness, inclusive leadership and the overall employee experience. A Pew Research survey conducted last year reveals that 42 percent of women say they have experienced discrimination at work.
The most common examples include women who state that they earn less than men, do the same job or work as them, and that they are treated as incompetent. A smaller, but still significant percentage (16 percent and 15 percent, respectively) reported experiencing small and repeated slights at work and receiving less support from senior leaders compared to their male counterparts in similar roles. An online survey conducted by Stop Street Harassment reveals that 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men have experienced some form of sexual harassment, a form of gender discrimination in their lives. And a Marist survey reveals that 22 percent of adults and 35 percent of women have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace.
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers cannot discriminate against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion. Private employers, state and local government organizations, and any agency with 15 or more employees must comply with these guidelines. In addition, many states have additional legal protections to prevent sexual discrimination in the workplace. There are multiple reasons for blame, such as “sticky floors” that are the result of traditional social norms that prevent women from choosing better-paying jobs and industries dominated by men, unequal access to education and discrimination.
Despite the federal law against gender inequality and discrimination, it insidiously infiltrates workplaces. In addition, managers often identify candidates for employment opportunities based on their personal networks for recommendations, which usually consist of “people like them” (of the same gender, race, identity). Gender gaps in compensation can not only be addressed in litigation, but they can also result in lower participation of talented women. As part of educating your employees about discrimination, address unconscious biases and how they can influence the way colleagues communicate with each other, communicate in general, and make decisions.
Therefore, employers can do what they generally cannot do for senior management positions, that is, take gender into account when filling board positions or even reserving a seat on the board for a woman. If someone, male or female, files a complaint against someone in your organization for discriminatory behavior or harassment, don't wait for the situation to escalate. Both the board of directors and the senior management team must understand the legal issues associated with gender discrimination (see the sidebar). Gender inequality in the workplace takes many forms: wage inequality, disparity in promotions, incidents of sexual harassment and racism.
The use of diverse hiring teams that have received appropriate training should help ensure that neither conscious nor unconscious gender biases influence decision-making. Women, especially black women, LGBTQ+ women and women of color, continue to face barriers to leadership positions and are likely to face microaggressions, offensive statements, or insensitive questions related to race, ethnicity, gender and sexual identity. .
