What happens on March 9th or April 9th? Pushing for progress should be an always on agenda !!!

March 8th being celebrated as women’s day is great to mark the day every year, to remind people of what needs to be done and then what happens after a day or a month.?What's important is what decisions are made that day, the implementation of it, the changes it brings about in the long run and the accountability for it. Lets envisage what the world should be like on March 8th, 2024 !

Every organization should use March 8th to launch a program that either chisels away at the disparate situation or does something big that completely removes it.?The #tokenism and the #pinkwash need to stop.?The rose bouquets and spa vouchers don’t cut it any more for women.?Use the policies and measurability of the policies to show and tell and record the progress year on year on those policies.?Attach productivity goals and happiness goals to those policies.?

Three things that can push for progress all year long is creating gender pay equality all year long, improving the percentage of women on boards beyond the statutory ask and reverse mentoring of men by women.

Gender pay gap -#transparency #truthful #perspective

In a world, where women are hardly treated equal, the workplace can surely make some changes and it start with gender agnostic pay.?According to a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the gender pay gap in India stands at 27% as of 2023.?It's a hard truth and needs to be tackled from screening candidates to pay rises.?There have been numerous debates about making salaries transparent, but that has died a quiet death.?It's a delicate space where no one wants their salary known for obvious reasons.?Therefore, this becomes the responsibility of the leadership to ensure that the pay parity policy is part of their organization guiding principle.

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Organizations should also include working on the gender gap by contributing back to the society by educating and skilling younger girls so that they have a chance at equal employment to start with.??That in turn will help organizations ensure that they start right when employing women.??Skilling should also go beyond ‘feminized’ occupations and reskilling mothers who are returnees to the workforce.?Reward the skill and not the gender should be part of the culture and not a policy driven approach.

Women on boards - what's the %

India made significant and rapid progress in increasing women representation on boards from 6% in 2013 to 18% in 2022 according to an EY report. ??Every woman’s day, this is a topic of discussion and a well-intended noise.?There is a need for a concerted effort to improve this all year around and make it a measurable KPI for the leadership across corporates.??While there is a regulatory mandate, corporates should look at what is required for their company and make a decision that goes beyond the number that is mandated.?It is a necessity to start equity at the board level so that the organization becomes truly inclusive and creates role models at the top.??Data proves that including women in boards has helped increase the organizations performance and helps improve inclusion in the workplace.??Data also proves that the ability to make decisions, uphold corporate governance, drive ESG and other evolving practices depend on a diverse boardroom and gender diversity is a place to start this.

There is the need to go beyond posturing and make it a part of the DNA of the organization.??Develop a practice of transparency and reporting the diversity decisions so that the accountability increases.??Skill women to help them be on boards and to be part of that decision making platform.?Always keep the diversity pipeline green.?

Reverse mentoring for men - #strongallyship

It's not a hidden secret that men are important to moving the needle on gender equality and equity.??Men are as conditioned as women in various societies to stay away from women and that needs to be reversed by creating a safe environment and some learning programs. ?This is much better with the Gen Z where the openness of the conversations has improved, and the gender lines are blurred.?The acceptance of people beyond their gender is progressed.?It's important to have this kind of allyship across the board and across levels.?Reverse mentoring of men by women creates an atmosphere of reciprocation, understanding and collaboration.??

?It is also observed that this also helps men appreciate the relationships at the workplace, empathy, and stronger gender intelligence.??It is beyond moral responsibility for men to also be included in the ERG initiatives and participate actively.??This enables them to develop their ally skillset on an ongoing basis.?

It's essential that organisations establish norms where all teams are gender diverse and are learning from each other to facilitate acceptance of difference perspectives, empathize with each other and bring in differential and inclusive thinking that benefits he organizations growth.?

Progress means steps forward; improvement or evolvement and all of these words will have no meaning if it's not consistent or continuous.??Let pushing for progress get better and goes beyond just March 8th or for a month alone.?Let the percentages speak better stories next March and let the allyship conversation be all inclusive.?Let's focus on forging ahead with full speed.?#progresswithspeed #fullspeedahead