What started as a wave of 15,000 women marching through New York City demanding shorter working hours, better pay and the right to vote in 1908, has now transformed into a global movement to celebrate, exalt, and commemorate the achievements of women in every field of life.
We have come a long way, but only in specific countries and pin codes. A lot of women are still fighting for their basic rights to live a peaceful and independent life. Violence against women is real and still at large even in the most developed nations.
Women bring creativity and critical services to all levels of society, from the home to the office, laboratory, and boardroom. This year for International Women’s Day, participants are encouraged to ‘choose to challenge’ gender bias and inequality and celebrate women’s achievements.
Let’s look at some of the global organizations who have been leading the change in the workplace.
55% of all staff members in Sodexo are women – that’s up from just 17% in 2009. 58% of the members on the board of directors are female and the company runs 14 Gender Balance Networks worldwide.
The organisation’s Global Diversity and Inclusion vision is “to maximise the global power of diversity and inclusion, to drive superior business results and sustainable competitive advantage.” How they’re making this happen is through employee resource groups, mentoring programmes and ‘Diversity University’, which is a dynamic website that helps employees to understand the benefits of working collaboratively.
Mastercard consistently makes it into the Top 10 of DiversityInc’s 50 Best Companies for Diversity list. A particularly unique project that Mastercard has executed over the past few years involves getting older employees in the company more active when it comes to social media.
The organisation was the first of the Big Four to assign full-time, partner-level leadership to diversity recruiting. Ever since, the number of women in top executive management positions has increased by more than 20% and programmes such as EY Launch have begun, which is for ethnically diverse college freshmen, sophomores and transfer students
Diversity education programmes at Coca-Cola include Diversity Training, a Diversity Speaker Series and a Diversity Library. In 2017, a new parental benefits policy was implemented, whereby 6 weeks of paid leave is extended to all new mothers and fathers.
Diverse organizations perform better. Some companies are leading the charge to fix that “broken rung” and ensure women in their workplace are set up for career growth from the very beginning. Choose to challenge is a call to action; a call to call out gender bias and inequality wherever it shows its face. During COVID, women have suffered disproportionately: leaving or losing jobs so they can care for children; for single mothers, and especially women of color, the pandemic has been devastating. Overall, women’s gains as equals have been attacked. Effective ways to combat gender bias and inequality can be through political action, action in the workplace to accommodate women experiencing these challenges, and personal action by lending a hand when one can.
