Women's Equity Day!
August 21, 2023
Since 1971, when Congress designated August 26th as Women’s Equality Day, an annual commemoration of the passage of women’s suffrage in the U.S., many businesses, institutions, and other organizations have seen the day as an opportunity to continue the advance of equity for women in the workplace.
Although American women have been demanding equal rights for things like pay, inheritance, and political representation since the early 1800s, change has been slow to come, and true equity is still an unrealized goal. Even now, U.S. full-time female workers, especially women of color, make only about 80 cents for every dollar earned by white men. And although more than half the American workforce is female, in 2023 only slightly more than 10 percent of Fortune 500 companies are headed by women.
As an HR professional, consider implementing these actions to promote equity for female employees:
- Make sure your organization’s hiring and promotion policies are fair and unbiased: Review and revise hiring and promotion policies. Review job descriptions to ensure that they’re gender-neutral, focus on necessary skills and qualifications, and avoid gender-specific language.
- Conduct regular pay audits to ensure equal pay for equal work, regardless of gender: If disparities are found, take steps to rectify them.
- Provide unconscious bias training: Conduct regular training sessions for employees and managers to raise awareness about unconscious biases and stereotypes that may affect decision-making processes, and help ensure that everyone understands the importance of treating all employees equitably.
- Offer flexible work policies: Promote work-life balance and gender equality by implementing flexible policies, like remote work, flex hours, or job-sharing. This provides female employees with more options to balance work and personal responsibilities.
- Maintain family-friendly policies: Provide parental leave policies that support both mothers and fathers. Offer benefits such as childcare assistance and clean, private breast-feeding accommodation.
- Create mentorship programs: Offer mentorship programs that connect female employees with successful leaders within the company to develop their skills and expand their networks.
- Make sure there’s a clear process for reporting any incidents of gender-based discrimination, harassment, or bias: Create a safe reporting and complaint system to investigate and address complaints promptly and fairly.
- Encourage and support professional development: Offer workshops and training programs that support employees in pursuing additional education or certifications.
- Regularly assess and measure the effectiveness of equity initiatives: Monitor and measure progress through metrics such as employee satisfaction surveys, attrition rates, promotion rates, and pay equity. Use this data to identify areas for improvement and make necessary changes.
HR professionals are in the best position to positively impact the equitable treatment of female employees, and create a more inclusive and diverse workplace!