In the past couple of years, many improvements been made to address the problem of gender inequality in the workplace. Female employees were often given significantly less salary packages and benefits than their male colleagues, simply because of the notion that they weren’t competitive enough. They were underrepresented at senior management roles because of a lower opinion of their abilities.
But frequent portrayal in popular media such as movies and TV shows has elevated the perception of women at the workplace. It is no longer unusual to see women working while managing their families. Many media outlets celebrate women who don’t have families, but live content and fulfilled lives as highly successful professionals.
Gender discrimination and unequal pay is illegal, yet statistics show that a lot still remains to be done. It is true that there is a glass ceiling at the work place for many women who struggle tremendously to break barriers. A research report published by Accenture found that when women are allowed to work to their full potential, the entire organization stands to benefit.
Organizations that promote a culture of equality help both genders rise to higher levels, with women being four times more likely to rise to senior management positions than their male counterparts.
Below we will discuss some of the best methods to create gender equality at workplace.
Removing Gender Pay Gap
A culture of secrecy encourages the practice gender inequality, which is why companies need to introduce new policies that promote transparency to allow gender inequality to be challenged and confronted. One effective way to solve this problem is by instituting a pay bracket against each position, so that everyone knows how much they should be earning and what their earning potential is.
Placing Importance on Work Life Balance
According to researchers, younger employees are experiencing narrower gender pay gap. On the other hand, it is growing wider for working mothers because taking time off results in a pay penalty. The biggest reason preventing most women from reaching the peak of their career is the lack of childcare support. It is a good idea if companies decide to pay for child care and elder care.
It is important to not to oversell these benefits to job candidates if these benefits are not already in place because it will only increase employee turnover. A great strategy is to introduce paternal leave for fathers so some of the burden is relieved from working mothers, allowing them to invest into their careers.
Mentoring Individual Employees
Experienced mentors can guide people in different modes of life throughout their careers. Mentors can tackle complex issues such as answering key questions on how to ask for appraisal from your manager. Workplace mentors can also offer advice on tackling more controversial problems such as bullying and gender inequality at work place.
Besides, it is always beneficial if employees have someone they know they can trust.
Some companies try to enforce same sex mentoring because most men are wary of participating in activities with women. The last thing women need is further isolation at the workplace, depriving them of more opportunities to reach their potential.
Have you identified instances of gender discrimination at your work place? If so, you must root it out. Get in touch with the professional consultants at JS Benefits Group, and learn how to tackle gender discrimination at work.