Why #InspireInclusion is Not Enough – Inspire Safe Workplaces

This International Women’s Day does not feel the same for me and I know why.?

At the beginning of 2023, perturbed by what I was seeing and hearing around me, I conducted a dipstick survey among corporate communication professionals on toxic work environments and harassment at the workplace. The results shocked me. 96% of the 190+ corporate communication professionals who responded said they faced harassment at their workplaces. While the survey was across men and women, I would like to believe from the qualitative comments that more women than men responded. There were more findings that stunned me – the harassers were both men and women; the harassment was of all forms with only 9% being sexual; 57% quit their jobs due to the harassment. When I wrote an article on LinkedIn that resulted from the survey, the floodgates opened. I had many more write in and call to tell me that what I had written mirrored their experience.

Cut to the end of 2023. The Global Women in PR (GWPR) Annual Index, that measures and tracks progress towards gender equality at the workplace, had a special section on harassment at the workplace. The study covered women in PR at corporates and agencies across 35 countries. What did it say about harassment? 53% of women across all levels reported facing harassment at the workplace, the most common forms being psychological, power and personal harassment. Only 42% reported the harassment, the major reasons for not doing so being a negative impact on their career, fear of retaliation and lack of awareness about what to do. Around a third of those who reported the harassment either left or were encouraged to leave their organisations, the number being much higher for India at 48%. About a third who reported harassment said no action was taken.?

Many of these are women who responded to the surveys are likely from organisations and agencies that take pride in their work culture. As communicators, the women are more likely than not tasked with creating compelling internal and external communication campaigns and pitching stories about their great work culture. They are also the ones creating campaigns and pitching stories about International Women’s Day. The irony and tragedy is not lost on me.

Global Women in PR says that despite women in PR accounting for two-thirds of the workforce, only one-third of women working in the global PR industry hold boardroom positions. The PR and Communication industry is losing some of its best female talent for reasons that are all too familiar across other industries, compounded now by the harassment we are hearing more about.

I think about all these women who responded to my and GWPR surveys today as I think about Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise, a poem that many of us have probably read over and over again and been inspired by – it’s a poem of strength, courage and resilience. ?I don’t believe rising is anything to celebrate anymore – it’s the falling we need to stop. It’s the kind of situations that led one of my survey respondents to say that when she reported her harassment, “I was forced into resigning, and since I was pregnant and not in a position to fight back, I had to resign.”?

That is why I think #InspireInclusion is just not enough – yes, we need to celebrate diversity and empowerment. Yes, we need to “break down barriers, challenge stereotypes, and create environments where all women are valued and respected”.?But we need to do more. We need to create safer workplaces for women. We need to stand up for them. And we need to stop the rot of harassment.

Madeleine Albright once said, “It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.” Be that voice...for other women.

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