For just over a century, people across the world have been coming together on the 8th of March for International Women’s Day. So why do we celebrate this day?
In the early 1900s, women started rallying for better pay and work conditions, along with the right to vote. Although the women’s movement has come a long way in those hundred years, evidence suggests that gender bias is still active in the workplace. There is still more work to be done to achieve gender parity and equal opportunities for women.
Being in the HR industry, at AccountCom we know how important it is to ensure fair treatment and conditions for all employees in the workplace.
It’s not as simple as comparing pay cheque to pay cheque. It’s also about the formal and informal structures and attitudes that can exist in a workplace that impact a woman’s ability to succeed.
We support women in the workplace and parents returning to work. We do this by investing in our staff and making work/life balance a priority. We lead by example and have a culture of mentoring to support the growth and development of all our staff.
On this day, consider what your workplace could do to further drive equality. It could be a change in unconscious mindset around whether a man or woman is best suited to a certain type of job. It could be pay transparency to ensure men and women undertaking work of equal value are paid equally. It could be coaching and mentoring staff (both men and women) to provide them with strong role models to support them throughout their career. Perhaps it’s getting serious about flexible work conditions to allow full and equal participation in the workforce, regardless of gender.
Not only will you be supporting this important movement, you will be advancing the personal and professional development of your employees. You will be instilling in them a mentality that will help bring about a future of equality and fairness. Where it is not a case of the best man, or woman, who gets the job – it’s the best person.
If you have any questions on how the current guidelines might affect your workplace, contact us today for more information.