Empowering Women in the Workplace: Building a Culture Where Everyone Thrives

It’s not just fair, creating a workplace empowering to women is one of the keys to long term success. Firms that support gender equality not only advance employees careers, but also help themselves to better performance and innovation. However, building this kind of inclusive culture doesn’t come overnight. But creating that environment is a commitment from HR teams as well as managers and leaders, alike, to make sure that everybody can bring their best.

Why Gender Equality Matters for Business and HR

Progress has been made in this regard toward gender parity, but many face different challenges in their careers, from pay inequities to a lack of leadership opportunities. Global gender gap could take one century to close, estimates the World Economic Forum (2023). Failure to address these inequalities can result in higher turnover, lower engagement and lost opportunities for innovation – all very costly problems for any organization.

Companies that have an engaging HR and who practices fair and equal play have more engaged employees, lower turnover, and people work feel more connected to their work. And if leaders perceive the worth of numerous viewpoints in decision making, this typically incites superior solutions as well as greater flexibility in a competitive arena.

Breaking Down the Theories Behind Gender Equality

It’s important to understand some of the key theories that aim to understand as well as make a more equal workplace, be it there, gender theory and work. One concept of social role theory helps explain why people so often perceive gender ‘norms’ limiting roles in work. While there are many women who have the experience and skills for leadership roles, stereotypes can lead most people to unconsciously believe they are 'less suited' to these positions (Eagly & Wood, 1999).

These the kind of assumptions that Transformational Leaders often challenge. If these leaders deploy this approach, then they motivate their teams, focus on growth, and prioritize this. Transformational leaders do this by giving mentorship, guidance and giving people a fair playing field to advance on merit (Bass, 1985).

And equality is the fact that we all want to feel like we’re being treated fairly. Employees, particularly women will be more engaged and more motivated if they see that people are being offered equal opportunities for pay, growth, and recognition (Adams, 1965). Helping to embed fair policies in an organization’s culture would help HR support this, by making (fair) policies more than just words on paper.

How Gender Equality Drives Business Success

While empowering women in leadership roles makes for great women, it’s also good for business. Research from McKinsey & Company (2015) finds that companies with more gender-diverse leadership teams outperform the competition financially by 21% or more, and that this benefit applies to companies of all sizes and in all sectors. Diversity ensures organizations have unique perspectives that breathe and fuel Creativity and Innovation, which are the output ingredients of any organization working to sustain competitiveness.

Diversity organizations that get past the numbers are more satisfied employees. This became something that companies like Google and Salesforce saw firsthand. This has helped them bring on, and keep, top talent, leading to better, more engaged teams.

The Debate Around Gender Equality Initiatives

Support for gender equality is strong, but not everyone agrees on the way to go about achieving it. A common method is gender quotas, requiring a number of leadership roles to be filled by women, although some do so with controversy. Low numbers of women and minorities in the tech pipeline, along with worries that quotas could lead to 'tokenism' — where women are hired elsewhere to fill numbers, instead of based on merit, have drawn protests from critics. Yet if the quotas are conducted in a thoughtful manner, they have shown that they can help break cycles of inequality without hurting the leadership quality (Ahern & Dittmar, 2012).

A second way is to develop a supportive culture through mentorship, flexible work policies, and without bias recruitment. Personifications of transformational leadership principles using an example of company that supports women advancement is IBM. They’ve built an environment where women can grow without quotas, by focusing on mentorship and fair evaluation.

HR Practices That Support Women’s Success

For gender equality to work; it has to be part of daily practice, above and beyond policy. A great way of helping women navigate their careers is by mentorship. In this area, Bank of America has been a pioneer, with these so specific women's programs offering mentorship programs, designed to help women grow to senior roles. Mentors don't serve to prevent women from leaving their jobs or to watch their growth fail but to support, guide and connect them to others to help other women overcome the obstacles that, along the way, could happen.

Another important component of supporting women’s success is flexible work policies. Companies like Zoom and Microsoft do flexible schedules so that women can grow professionally and personally. By retaining talented women they would have otherwise had to sacrifice family for career, these policies have been valuable.

Making Gender Equality a Priority Across Sectors

It’s not just an issue in tech and finance, gender equality is important in all industries. Given women represent a strong percentage of the workforce in healthcare, gender equality is necessary to promote women to leadership positions. For example, the American Medical Association, has initiated programs to make their support for women’s professional development to address the leadership gap at the HR within the sector.

Companies like Salesforce are also working on initiatives to convince more people to enter the tech industry – and STEM roles in particular. Salesforce’s effort in recruiting, retaining, and advancing women has helped close and vital cultural gap and not only increase diversity, but also drive innovation and problem solving internally.

Creating a Culture Where Everyone Can Succeed

Empowering women at work isn’t just about closing the gender gap at the end of the day. What it is, is an environment where anybody, male or female, knows that they are going to have an equal shot at growing and doing well. Companies that practice such HR measures, such as promotion of mentorship, loose work policies and transformational leadership, create an environment where all are highly valued. It’s a win for all employees, who now have a more dynamic, productive and fair environment.

References

•      Adams, J. S. (1965). Inequity in social exchange. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 2, 267-299.

•      Ahern, K. R., & Dittmar, A. K. (2012). The changing of the boards: The impact on firm valuation of mandated female board representation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127(1), 137-197.

•      Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. Free Press.

•      Eagly, A. H., & Wood, W. (1999). The origins of sex differences in human behavior: Evolved dispositions versus social roles. American Psychologist, 54(6), 408-423.

•      McKinsey & Company. (2015). Diversity Matters.

•      World Economic Forum. (2023). Global Gender Gap Report.