Are we doing enough for gender diversity?
Meiava’s Founder recently spoke with a Head of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion for a major global financial services firm based in New York. He commented how they had some 90 initiatives focused on gender diversity and how they are always looking for how to enhance what they do. Not surprisingly, we agreed that it takes a range of actions to address such a significant problem. Which leads us to the question, are we doing enough for gender diversity?
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be significant on women. So much so that closing the global gender gap has increased from 99.5 years to 135.6 years – setting us back more than three decades of progress, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021.
Time for a reboot?
So it is timely that an article from professional services firm EY raises the question, Why gender diversity initiatives need a reboot. It highlights the state of women in leadership giving the example of what is happening in Japan where women in leadership lags other developed nations. The author comments on the need to go beyond tokenism and targets, to take a fresh look at the various initiatives around gender diversity.
Afterall, diversity in leadership for organizations has a compelling business case. Diversity in leadership correlates to a positive impact on performance, specifically profitability. EY together with The Peterson Institute for International Economics conducted a study which shows that a profitable firm with 30% of its leaders being female could expect to add a 15% boost to profitability compared with an otherwise similar firm with no female leaders.
Individual actions matter
On the topic of actions, here are some of the individual actions that the World Economic Forum suggests that we can take to address gender diversity, improve society and the future of work:
Work to close gender and diversity gaps in my company by hiring, mentoring, or promoting diverse colleagues.
Encourage my company to offer scholarship, internship, or apprenticeship programs, especially for women, minorities, the LGBTQI+ community or people with disabilities.
Volunteer to tutor or mentor a vulnerable child, donate books to libraries or schools in need, or support other programs tackling literacy and numeracy.
Encourage my national and local lawmakers to support equal rights for women, the LGBTQI+ community and the most vulnerable.
For additional reading, see Women and Diversity.
Supporting Meiava’s mission
At Meiava, we are aligned to the United Nation’s Sustainability Development Goal No. 5 to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”. Specifically, we are supporting the goal to “ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic and public life”.
We help to amplify the need for gender diversity and diversity and inclusion at large. Our current focus with Meiava Elevate is just part of our effort to find ways to help elevate more women into leadership.
By being a member of our Meiava Community, you are participating in our mission and helping us to have a collective impact – even in small, yet meaningful ways. We are so grateful for your support and time. Thank you!