How Can Businesses Bring Their Policies For Women Into The 21st Century?
Huge strides have been made towards gender equality in the workplace, yet there remains a significant gap in how women are treated compared to men. The figures are so stark that CNBC has described corporate progress as a failure. Clearly, there is a lot that businesses can do to make sure that women feel welcomed and valued within their business, and to ensure that they are treated fairly. This begins with addressing historic failures within the system and setting a trend as an employer.
Accepting women’s health risks
An essential foundation of workers benefit packages is workers compensation, and this is something that employers must provide by law. There are already disparities in what workers can earn through workers comp depending on state; California offers a more comprehensive hourly coverage rate than Florida, for example. Women have even more to consider. According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, women on average receive less from workers compensation settlements compared to men. They will find it more difficult to have doctors sign off requests, and are more likely to have their symptoms described as mental as opposed to physical, when compared to male peers reporting the same conditions. Employers can get ahead of the curve by taking a positive approach to the health concerns of their female workers and taking a proactive approach to aiding their wellbeing.
Bridging the pay gap
The pay gap remains wide open – and it isn’t immediately clear to some businesses as to why. According to CNN, positions are advertised at the same salary and standardized pay rises are not the source of inequality. However, as women age, they are paid less and less than men. What this shows is that salary reviews and performance rewards are not applied evenly. Businesses must be cognizant to this threat and seek to minimize it. Take proactive steps to ensure that appraisals are conducted in an even-handed manner and conduct consistency checks. This will ensure that businesses give themselves the best possible shot at protecting their female employees.
Looking at diversity
It’s also important to consider the intersectionality of women’s issues with other areas that social justice concerns-such as ethnicity and sexual orientation. The former is especially pertinent in the current age of business. Diversity within teams has been shown, time and time again, to benefit productivity. Yet, as the Brookings Institute highlights, women of color are routinely treated more negatively than both their male and female peers. It is crucial for businesses to identify unconscious biases and tackle them. This is the only way to ensure that diversity indicators of all types are acknowledged and proactive action taken in response to inequalities.
Uneven treatment of women in the workplace is something that’s been a fact of business for as long as businesses have operated. That doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. Through careful analysis of why women fall behind at work, and proactive action to manage that, businesses can be trendsetters in the modern world of industry.
