Gender Equality in the Workplace
This International Women’s Day, we reflect on gender equality in the workplace and leave you with three big takeaways:
1. It’s no-one’s ‘fault’
In a recent gender equality strategy we created, we dug into the gender pay gap. Analysing the pay differences between men and women, regardless of the actual role they perform, provided lots of interesting insights and new learnings for us. For example, did you know: female dominated industries typically have lower wages than male dominated industries.
Think: hairdressers vs. bricklayers; Nurses vs. Doctors; or Waitstaff vs. Cook or Chef
We acknowledge that Awards and legislation are helping to close this pay gap rapidly, but, the fact is, the pay gap persists. Unfortunately, the activities that contribute to gender pay gaps are deeply embedded societal behaviours, demonstrating that it is not any single person or group’s fault.
Contributing factors include:
male-dominated sectors have existed for longer and have a longer history of advocacy
female-dominated sectors (such as caring) have been performed for free for a long time, creating a history of monetary under-valuing of the duties being performed
persistent societal views of ‘gendered roles’ ie/ the expectation that men, or fathers, are breadwinners, and women, or mothers, stay at home and perform caring duties
2. We all need to work part-time!
The persistence of ‘gendered roles’ in our society is difficult to challenge as individuals. We recently did some work with a male-dominated workplace that had introduced a gender-neutral parental leave and flexible work policy. However, very few men were taking up the opportunity.
Some of the feedback as to ‘why not’ included:
An inverse incentive: It was felt, leaving the workplace for an extended period, or a reduction in hours, would reduce opportunities for promotion
Lack of know-how: It was unclear how to incorporate flexible arrangements into their roles
No role models: It was not known to be an option (no-one around them had ever taken parental leave)
Conversely, we know women typically work part-time as they enter child-rearing years, impacting on their professional career choices. For example, they limit their career choices to roles that can be undertaken part-time, or they don’t strive for a promotion because they plan on leaving the workforce for a period. So, while equal access to parental leave is a wonderful policy to encourage men to be present in the earliest part of their child’s life, it fails to solve the much longer-term problem of meeting the day-to-day demands of being a parent.
Now, imagine a world where every job is performed part-time. Every role in every sector would be accessible. Societal expectations would shift from women staying at home, to parents sharing work and home duties. And there would be greater potential for household income to grow if both parents could chase promotions despite their part-time status.
3. Today’s men are trailblazers
As women who have children and professional careers, we both put pressure on our husbands to share home duties. And they have dutifully stepped up to that plate, despite not having any male role-models in their lifetime to learn from.
We see the challenges our husbands face when they try to lean into school activities, but the school phones mum when there’s a problem; when they take children to doctors’ appointments and feel low confidence from staff in their ability to discuss their child’s health; or when they run household errands, kids in tow, and are met with patronising gushes of support and enthusiasm.
They’ve grown into these roles, managed the pressure and judgement, and have developed a grounded confidence as they persevere through it all. They are navigating many firsts, and providing precious role-modelling that will lay foundations for our children once they enter the workforce and begin their families.
We hope this inspires some celebration of women and equality chat around the water cooler.
If you need help with your gender equality strategy, or support to get your people to embrace change that will enhance their performance – get in touch. We have experience in this space and love this work!
