SDG #5 - Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls

SDG #5 - Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls

SDG#5 is about fundamental human rights, but it is also about stopping the waste of tremendous human potential. Women and girls comprise half the global population and therefore half of humanity’s unfulfilled potential.

Without equality, society is in ill-health, and for it to thrive everyone within it must thrive too. Currently women face social, legal, and economic barriers to full participation in society and the economy which in turn deteriorate their health, well-being, and independence. A business that empowers women will see a boost both in terms of employee satisfaction, and performance, and economic growth.

What do the happiest country in the world, and the one with one of the best responses to the pandemic have in common? They are both run by women. Indeed, many praised Jacinda Ardern for being firm and leading her country out of the pandemic as quickly and painlessly as possible, while Finland, a ‘nation run by women’  is home to the happiest of all (despite the low hours of sunshine!). These are just two examples of women’s fulfilled potential, and what society would be like, should gender equality materialise. In spite of encouraging progress in the last decades and having the ‘most ever’ women in political and corporate leadership positions, these numbers still only account for a quarter of MPs, 36% of local governmental representatives, and 28% of corporate managerial positions, making women underrepresented in all spheres.

A greatly overlooked consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic and the increased time spent home is the increase in domestic violence, which grew to affect 1 in 5 women in the last 12 months, and from an intimate partner. Other forms of violence affect 1 in 3 women above the age of 15. During lockdown, confined to the family home with children home-schooled, and the elderly more fragile, the unpaid domestic and care work women have been performing for centuries increased multi-fold. Such a heightened burden risks forcing women out of the labour market thereby further skewing inequalities worldwide.

‘Limited gains in gender equality and women’s rights made over the decades
are in danger of being rolled back due to the COVID-19 pandemic’
– António Guterres, UN Secretary-General in April 2020.

And while women are hit hardest by the consequences of the pandemic, they are also crucial actors in response and recovery. 70% of frontline workers are female who demonstrated unprecedented resilience and commitment throughout the last two years and beyond. We must use the Covid-19 recovery to better integrate women into leadership and prevention plans to stop any backsliding in gender equality.

There’s also cause for hope: more girls are attending schools worldwide than ever, and all percentage points of women in power are at all-time peaks and trending upwards. However, on a structural level there is a long way to go as gender bias remains engrained in the social fabric of all societies. We must actively deconstruct prejudice, discrimination, and the misogyny that women too often have to fight.

March is all about gender equality, equal treatment, and empowerment. As businesses, we are in a prime position to pioneer gender equality, end discrimination in the workplace, and challenge societal perceptions of gender. As always, start by looking inside. Assess your workforce, your female leaders, your commitment to equal pay for equal work, and whether you are truly a safe working environment for women.

Women earn 10-30% less than men for the same work. As an organisation, make sure you operate on an equal pay policy, and that you actively fight for equal pay for equal work outside of your walls too. Pay equal renumeration for work of equal value, and this should include benefits and bonuses. Require your suppliers to do the same. As per Target #5.5, ensure full [female] participation in leadership and decision-making. Remove barriers to promotion for female talent by fighting existing gender bias. Recognising and admitting bias is the first step in eliminating it. Organise workshops and awareness trainings especially for your recruitment team to ensure that talent acquisition is done strictly on merit. To better employee understanding of the issues surrounding gender equality, conduct company-wide sexual harassment and unconscious bias training and raise awareness on the corporate gender equality policy and action plan.

Draft and distribute a corporate gender equality policy and action plan. Define gender-inclusive and equality-focused priorities for growth, set targets, and communicate them to board members, employees, and external stakeholders. Involve your employees, and especially your female workforce in drafting the targets and strategies to achieve them. Ask for grievances and recommendations to truly address the needs of the women in your organisation. Appoint a Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Officer to ensure that your workforce has a trusted point of contact, but also to collect data on performance for KPIs. Make promises and targets meaningful by making managers across all levels accountable for reporting on progress and meeting annual targets.

Run a Women in Business initiative. If your business is large enough, give a platform to your female employees where they can convene to voice concerns, ideas, and opinions, and act as female role models for others in the industry. This is especially important if you work in an industry where women are underrepresented, such as engineering, IT, construction, the energy sector, or finance.

To formalise your efforts further, commit to the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs). These are a set of principles drafted by UN Global Compact and UN Women that offer clear and detailed guidance to businesses on how to promote gender equality. By signing as a CEO, a company commits to gender equality at the highest level. Principles include commitment to equal representation in leadership, equal access to healthcare and benefits, and the provision of unconscious bias training. Moreover, as a signatory to the WEPs, you will be provided resources on how to spread the word through your supply chain. Such efforts include actively seeking business relations with women-owned suppliers.

After the initial absurdity wears off, it is clear that a survey finding that there are more CEOs named Peter in UK FTSE 100 companies than total female CEOs unmasks a deeply rooted gender inequality, and that we have a long way to go. Drafting policies and becoming signatories to pledges are a great start as a company, but we must ensure that they don’t become just meaningless paperwork to a company that (perhaps unintentionally) reinforces gender differences and bias. Transparency and accountability are the cornerstones of equality in business, and businesses have a responsibility to ensure equality.

Become outspoken, critical, and innovative in your stances on gender, act on your policies and foster conversation among your employees.

We publish our SDG blog monthly, focusing on the UN’s chosen goal for that month. Find out more about #13 Climate Change, #7 Clean Energy or #16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. For the full list see our guide to the UN Sustainable Goals.

In a data survey completed by denominator, there are more CEOs in America named Michael than there are minority women.