6 Great Things Employers Can Do To Improve Gender Equality

6 Great Things Employers Can Do To Improve Gender Equality

by Frank Feldman 23/01/2020

Gender equality is achieved when both men and women have access to the same set of opportunities and resources, are hired, evaluated or promoted based on the same criteria, and aren’t discriminated against due to their gender. While significant progress has been made in improving gender equality in workplaces around the globe, a lot more needs to be done. Employers can lead the way. Here are six great things employers can do to improve gender equality:

1. Have More Women Take Up Leadership Roles

Women hold less than 50% of leadership positions in every industry analyzed by the researchers at the World Economic Forum in the year 2017.  The report titled “The Global Gender Gap Report 2017” highlighted that representation of women in leadership roles drops to an abysmal 20% in some sectors such as energy, mining, manufacturing, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

If your company does not have many women in senior roles, it is perhaps time to reevaluate your hiring criteria. Find out if the human resources department has intentionally or unintentionally erected some barriers that keep women from applying or qualifying for senior positions advertised by your company.   

When more women take up leadership roles in an organization and get involved in the decision-making process, it eventually helps improve gender equality in the workplace. Women workers also feel motivated to join such organizations due to increased opportunities in mentorship and professional growth.

2. Proactive Approach to Prevent Gender Discrimination in the Workplace

Employers need to understand what constitutes workplace gender discrimination and how they can stop it. Often, workplace gender discrimination (including unlawful sexual harassment) goes unreported. Even the United States Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) that reportedly received around 90,000 complaints against workplace harassment (including sexual harassment) in the year 2015 noted that the numbers do not reflect the ground reality as the vast majority of victims choose not to file a complaint.

Employers should actively promote the fact that any kind of gender discrimination in the workplace will not be tolerated. Instituting a policy to promote gender equality in the workplace is the first step in this direction. The policy should clearly define:  

• What constitutes workplace gender discrimination?
• How can victims report gender discrimination to supervisors or the HR department in an easy and confidential manner?
• How a supervisor or manager should deal with an employee indulging in gender discrimination?
• How does the employer or the management deal with an employee found guilty of discriminating against a person due to his or her gender?

Employers should be unambiguous in describing the consequences arising from sexual harassment or gender discrimination in the workplace.

Ignoring or mishandling complaints of gender discrimination by the human resources department, supervisors or managers is a bad idea. This practice not only defeats an employer’s intention to promote gender equality but also sends out the message that a company condones gender discrimination.

3. Train Managers on How to Improve Gender Equality in the Workplace

Both men and women in senior positions in a company should be trained on how to achieve gender equality. For starters, they need to know how employees, including managers and those responsible for recruiting new workers, indulge in subtle or obvious gender discrimination. For instance, a hiring manager may continually prefer female or male candidates over other genders.

Often, a large number of employees are not even aware of gender stereotypes that lead to (unintentional) discriminatory behavior.  Managers or supervisors can play a crucial role in improving gender equality if they are trained on how to identify the signs of gender discrimination or workplace sexual harassment and are well aware of the methods on how to tackle such issues. They can further help their subordinates on how to identify and remove their unconscious biases.

Managers or supervisors should know how to:

• Always use ‘inclusive’ language or tone when addressing or interacting with workers
• Call it out when men or women are selectively excluded
• Call-out inappropriate comments, behavior or actions by junior workers or colleagues
• Lead by example
• Appreciate both men and women for their contributions
• Challenge common (gender) stereotypes and biases

Instituting and implanting a policy focused on promoting workplace gender equality cannot deliver results if the people in leadership roles aren’t prepared to educate themselves and their subordinates on the subject.

4. Remove Gender Pay Gap

Employers should make sure that male and female employees who take up an identical set of responsibilities at work are offered the same salary and benefits.

In the United States, a male worker earns 1 dollar against 79 cents earned by a female worker as per a report published by the Senate Joint Economic Committee Democratic Staff. Great progress has been made in improving gender pay parity in the last two decades but a lot remains to be done; according to Women’s Policy Research, 100% gender pay parity cannot be achieved until the year 2059.

One of the best ways employers can remove gender pay-gap is to introduce a culture of transparency. When a bunch of candidates is considered for a vacant position, for instance, hiring managers should have a well-defined salary structure to adhere to, regardless of whether they hire a male or female candidate. Companies that are completely transparent about the fact that they pay equal wages to workers taking up specific roles, send out a strong message that they care about eliminating gender-biases in the workplace.

5. Gender-Neutral Hiring Practices

Often, employers aren’t aware of the reasons why they do not have gender-diversity in their workplaces. Therefore, it is important that employers evaluate their hiring practices and make them gender-neutral. Here are some standard guidelines:

• When a company advertises a vacant position, it should be mindful of using gender-neutral language in advertisements and notifications.
• The HR staff responsible for reviewing resumes should not be aware of the gender of a candidate.
• Each candidate appearing for an interview for a specific position should be asked the same set of questions.
• Candidate selection procedures should be standardized in order to eliminate gender-bias.
• Hiring managers should not stereotype tasks, responsibilities or roles. Candidates hired for a position should be assigned duties as per their competencies and not based on their gender.

6. Equal Growth Opportunities

Employers should ensure that both men and women are offered the same set of opportunities as far as mentorship, training, promotion, and education are concerned. A quick organization-wide employee data analysis can help employers identify potential gaps in providing equal growth opportunities to all their workers.

Disclaimer: This is not legal information. No attorney-client privileges are substantiated from this article.  

by Frank Feldman 23/01/2020

Frank Feldman is PR/Media Manager at Stephen Danz & Associates, one of the largest law firms committed solely to representing employees in their disputes with employers in California.