Why is gender equality important?
Men and women are equal and should be treated as such. It is almost hard to find people that disagree with this notion nowadays. However, men and women are NOT being treated as equals in many organizations. Women are severely underrepresented in leadership positions. Only 44 of the Fortune 500 companies is women-led. On average, women globally are paid about 20 per cent less than men. Why is gender equality important? And why should you care about gender equality in your organization? In this blog post, I explain the importance of gender equality.
Gender equality from an ethical point of view
Gender equality is essential from an ethical point of view. Making sure that men and women are paid the same salaries for the same work is just something fair. It is the right thing to do. Gender should not be the reason someone is not hired, it should always be skills and expertise.
Benefits of gender-equal teams for organizations
Gender equality benefits an organization as well. Gender-equal teams perform better than teams consisting solely of men. They also perform better than teams that consist solely of women. The best-performing teams seem to be the teams that have a good balance.
Mixed-gender teams produce more novel and impactful scientific research than teams of only men or women. Business teams with an equal number of women and men perform better in terms of sales and profits than do male-dominated teams.
Teams with a more significant percentage of women perform better by building meaningful relationships and creating successful work processes. If a team has a balanced mix of gender, that team seems to offer an assortment of knowledge and skills.
Society changes- now organizations should change
Society has changed. Men and women have become more equal. They are equally well educated. Girls’ performance in mathematics is equal to that of boys. On some occasions, girls outperform boys in their levels of education. However, the percentage of women in leadership roles or senior management has not become equal to the percentage of men.
If we could change that within your organization, that would be a very good step. And if leading women in your organization could be role models for other women, you’ll be helping society to transform. One little step at a time!
How to improve gender equality in your organization
Convinced that gender equality is important? Want to get to work and make your organization more female-friendly? It is time for the Empowerwoment Project!
To create a gender-equal place to work, an organization and the women within that organization need to collaborate. The Empowerwoment Project combines coaching and intervision of women with actions and tasks to change and improve the organization.
Interventions are often aimed at women or are aimed at HR departments and leadership teams. In the Empowerwoment Project, we do both. We help women to step up while investigating things that could be improved within an organization. Read more and sign up!
