Gender Equity: All Voices Matter

In companies across the world, in Hollywood, in the news, in schools and in boardrooms, important and historic conversations are taking place. Although gender (in)equality, as an issue has been around as long as time itself, the narrative has now taken center stage in the global consciousness bringing new thoughts and ideas to the forefront. I believe gender equality is important, but gender equity is even more vital for our success in business.

Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations and needs equally, regardless of gender.

Gender equity is trying to understand where people are coming from and giving them what they need to be successful. This means not necessarily giving everyone the exact same thing, but rather just what they need to be able to be happy and productive.

If we want to achieve a world of gender equity, we need to recognize that we can’t keep focusing on women alone – after all, in most cases, it wasn’t women who made the rules of engagement when it comes to the workplace. To be blunt, men can be part of the problem of gender inequity. How they think, behave, relate to women and to each other, all play an important part in keeping gender inequalities alive. Additionally, our workplaces are built on male engagement in business. This is just history. And it’s nothing that can’t be changed.

So how can we combat the inequity? How do we value both genders in a way that plays to their strengths? I believe we need to look at workplace policies with a new lens. What got us here won’t ever get us there.

When women serve in leadership positions, they have an impact that reaches beyond those in the top-level roles. A few years ago the McKinsey Global Institute reported that by 2025, gender parity could add $12 trillion to the world economy. In the U.S. alone, as of 2016, 47 percent of the nation’s labor force was female. And while equity is crucial across all levels in a company, it’s particularly important within the C-suite. Studies have shown that companies with greater gender diversity in leadership roles are more profitable.

There are many ideas around how to make business more equitable for both genders. Here are a few I believe can move the needle both in terms of profit but also for a higher-performing culture:

1. Reframe parental leave policies to support all parents and their partners and encouraging more equal co-parenting. Limiting parental leave to just the primary care giver promotes a culture of inequity. Many Scandinavian countries already have this figured out. Check out this finding, published in a report by Harvard Business Review: “Primary-caregiver policies are also counterproductive to employer efforts to recruit and retain women, who leave industries like tech at twice the rate of their male counterparts. Research shows that the more parental leave fathers take, the more likely mothers are to return to work full-time. Gender-neutral leave policies allow families to take parental leave equitably and are the better bet for employee retention.”
2. Create a flexible environment for all employees. Flexibility allows employees to give you their highest and best work while still attending to the many details of life. A flexible work environment not only benefits employees, but it also has been proven to reduce tardiness and absenteeism as well as showing a reduction in employee turnover, which has a direct tie to profit for most companies.
3. Equalize pay. Do I have to even say this one? If a man and a woman have the same title and are doing the same job, they must be paid the same. In 2017, US women earned 80.5 cents for every dollar earned by men. Men are not more valuable than women. By paying women 80.5% of what a male counterpart earns, we are sending a message that devalues women’s contributions.
4. Increase women’s sense of influence. Businesses can also build greater gender equity by improving decision-making to make the process more inclusive. Women think differently than men. Foster a culture that encourages new ideas and appropriate risk-taking. Help women feel more involved or at least informed by ensuring a clear decision-making process. With a higher sense of influence, women create value for their businesses.

Shining a light on gender differences, bringing men deeper into the conversation, and opening up space for intelligent dialogue and healthy tension will bring us closer to the objective of closing the gender equity gap in business.

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