Gender equality in the workplace
As it relates to the workplace, the concept of gender equality for me is more than having females in leadership roles. Yes, this is important for representation and gives the girl child a point of reference, while fostering the “it’s possible” aspirational outlook. The importance of female leadership representation cannot be overstated, yet it cannot be the only measure. It is what happens on the ground - the interaction with male security officers at the entrance, the daily meetings, the stares from male colleagues by tea pause area / eating space, the walking ahead of male colleagues in long passages in tight clothing, the responses when she asks to leave work early because her kid is sick, the judgement when she’s feeling down at work and she has no explanation for it and many others - that speaks to whether a company promotes gender-equality amongst its staff. She does not leave for home, ‘today I felt good about working for my company because we have such good policies in place that protect us’. She mostly thinks about all the daily experiences mentioned above. If as companies we do not directly address these, we’re upholding a system that traumatises one gender at the expense of the other, all while magically expecting them to close a gap - pay gap, career projection gap, etc. - that we’re so hard pressed to maintain. For me, it is:
The development of a widely held appreciation of the gender-based differences in approach to how we show up in the workplace.
The dissolution of the unspoken rule that associates leadership qualities with traits that come east to men - that for one to lead one must be harsh and cold
An openness to and an acceptance to that leadership is largely learnt and not the preserve of those those so selected through a biological process over which none had control.
Realisation that men are needed in the fight. As much as we say women do not need men for women to elevate in how women are viewed, it is not women that concluded that they needed to be subservient to the male gender. By and large, the key driver to having that level of acceptance in our companies still lies with men accepting that view and, while in the leadership roles men are in, instilling a culture that puts people of the two genders on the same starting point, with differences to be driven by performance and not gender.
Fostering endorsements that allow people of both genders to compete on merit. Just as the way we interpret transformation as black people, one never really wants to receive applause because of skin colour but because the performance merits the applause, I would like to think that most women share similar sentiments inasfaras it relates to their recognition in the workplace. The moment an accolade is based on a feature one never worked for, it tends to lose meaning for the receiver (especially when the receiver is from a previously excluded background).
Hearing and accepting an idea the first time a female colleague makes it public, without the need for it to be repackaged in male voice first.
The acceptance amongst males that when a female colleague receives that promotion over him, that the female was better and it ends there.
The training of the male boss that he should not be worried about hiring females to report to him because not every female is looking for a romantic relationship in the workplace.
An openness that she reasons differently, she is influenced by different stimuli, she may arrive at the same conclusion, sometimes quicker or slower, like any human being.
The treatment that a female sexual harassment victim receives from both her female and male colleagues, even when the perpetrator is the one male boss everyone loves.
There are many other actions that can be taken to level the playing field. In a country like South Africa, where the safety and security of female persons is always one wrong turn from being compromised, there needs to be more done to allow for our female colleagues to be safe in the workplace. Happy Women’s Day.
