Building An Equitable World And Workplace
The pandemic, one of the most unusual events in modern history, has impacted the workplace in unimaginable ways. It is evident that this challenging situation has affected women more disproportionately, with a marked increase in domestic and caregiving responsibilities and additional workload demands. Many women have had to give up their career aspirations because they were unable to find the right support either at home or in the workplace.
Several studies suggest that almost 80% of women employees have reported a significant increase in workload. While this is also true for men in the workplace, this situation becomes aggravated especially for countries like India where primary caregiving responsibilities and domestic expectations are placed mostly on women. This discord in work-life balance negatively affects women’s mental health and future professional aspirations.
To be able to build an equal and equitable world, we must start introspecting how we view women not just in the context of an organization, but also at an individual and societal level.
At the start of the pandemic, as individuals settled into the working from home situation, I recall there being a sudden interest and excitement as many men took to domestic chores for the first time. It was baffling to see men being applauded for managing domestic responsibilities which women have been managing while balancing full-time careers without perhaps as much as a ‘thank you.’
Women are subjected to often unreasonable expectations and demands in terms of behavior, responsibilities, standards of appearance, life choices among other dimensions. You would rarely hear of a man being called ‘too emotional’ or ‘too aggressive’. Many would say that salt-and-pepper hair in men is a desirable trait. At 50 years of age, women are too old to look for love, but a man is at his prime. There are many such instances of double standards that hinder us from understanding what true equity implies.
If we expect an equal world, we must ask ourselves, are we being fair and equitable in our outlook? Are we holding individuals to the same standards keeping in mind their backgrounds, experiences, and positions of privilege? As a society, how can we challenge our biases and gender-normative and hetero-normative behaviors and standards?
More often than not, organizations have the power and influence to steer purposeful progress for these critical drivers that impact us as individuals and as a society. Therefore, organizations have a good deal of responsibility and accountability in building a culture of inclusion that supports the empowerment of women in the workplace and beyond.
Firstly, mental wellbeing is a pertinent dimension to enabling a winning and transparent culture of inclusion that supports women’s empowerment. De-stigmatizing the whole act of seeking support for mental wellbeing becomes crucial. Leaders can set the stage for this by encouraging healthy dialogue on mental health, enabling psychologically safe spaces so that women are able to share their experiences and be their whole, authentic selves without the fear of retribution. This way, employees also have different representations of women who are thriving in different workplaces and beyond.
Offering flexible work hours and ‘be kind to your mind’ leaves and leaders actively supporting and utilizing these benefits will help set the right examples for all employees.
It is also crucial to reflect on the career, promotion, and development opportunities that women employees are being offered in the workplace. Often, the exclusion starts at the very beginning. For example, a good check would be to ensure that your job descriptions are free from gendered/ gender-coded language - using terms like ambitious, aggressive which are typically associated with male traits, versus terms like collaborate or support which are associated with female traits. It is important to use more gender-inclusive language that is reflective of the organization’s culture of belonging.
Women are also known to apply for jobs only where they find a 100% match with the requirements, versus a 60% for men who apply. That means that there should be a reasonable balance in terms of the good to have and must-have requirements.
When reviewing the talent landscape it is important to ensure that there is a fair representation of women across levels, including senior and executive roles. Leaders and managers should also look at opportunities for women in typically male-dominated roles like Finance, Technology, and Sales.
Now, more than ever, it has become necessary to offer entry to mid-level career women with mentoring opportunities that enable them to learn from leaders and receive the right guidance and support.
Most importantly, employees should have role models who represent the uniqueness and experiences, and perspectives that make for an inclusive organisation.
Women are often restricted to archetypes and scripted roles and representation; leaders and employee resource groups should have healthy dialogues around this to address the gender-normative stereotypes and expectations, honoring the history and milestones of women empowerment and drive for meaningful change in the future. Therefore, to accomplish this, we should also enable allies - male colleagues who support an equitable workplace. It is important
to introduce equitable policies and practices and recognize the importance of equal sharing of caregiving and domestic responsibilities - not just for women but for everyone.
At Randstad India, we are committed to the philosophy of equity, diversity, and inclusion through our true self forward movement - embracing each other’s uniqueness and being our whole authentic selves. We are focused on building a culture of inclusion and belonging, beyond just diversity metrics and numbers. And that is achievable through a relentless focus on looking at talent as talent and beyond their labels, or a sum total of that.
True equity and equality is a journey and not a destination; with evolving time the definition and dimensions would also change. As individuals, we must take cognizance of our own biases and prejudices and be willing to confront and overcome them, despite the personal discomfort it may cause us.
The responsibility, accountability, and influence of equity rest with all stakeholders - individuals, organizations, and society. Because no one is included till all of us are included.
(The article has been solely curated for BW People Publication by Anjali Raghuvanshi, CHRO, Randstad India)
