Beyond Legislation webinar
Unanswered Q&As
1. I wanted to understand the rationale behind choosing these four specific countries for the research. Additionally, can the findings from this research be generalized to a global context?
With the EU Gender Equality Strategy for 2020-2025, we wanted to assess the progress of EU in this area. From an EU perspective, Germany and Spain have introduced several pieces of legislation in the last decade, while Sweden stands out as a global case study. We want to make comparisons among these countries. Additionally, we wanted to examine Switzerland, which has relatively weak gender equality legislation compared to EU nations yet is still influenced by EU policies on a regional level. Gender inequality is often driven by patriarchal values that segregate gender roles, expectations, and rights between men and women in a binary way. Most of our analysis will be informed by this perspective. However, it is essential to recognise that cultural contexts and geopolitical factors will shape how severely these barriers are experienced in different regions.
2. Can we claim that these results and problems are gender-specific? Do men experience the same barriers?
Yes, they do. The hypothesis is that anyone who strays from patriarchal values and the ideal worker norms (male breadwinner) will face prejudice. For example, fathers who work while also taking on primary caregiving roles, or men who deviate from traditional norms of masculinity, are likely to experience discrimination.
3. Do the barriers change by age group? For example Double burden – does it reduce in younger groups?
Yes, the issue does become more complex as the double burden intensifies, particularly when traditional gender role expectations at home place more emphasis on women doing the housework, childcare and caring for elderly parents. However, the gap in household equality often begins at a remarkably early age, as household chores tend to be allocated more to daughters than to sons, especially in certain cultures.
4. I’m not sure I understand the “I do not feel ambitious about progression within this organization” statement – what does it mean? The women don’t feel encouraged to progress? or that the women themselves don’t want to progress?
Evidence shows that women can be just as ambitious as men. This statement serves as an outcome measure of two hypotheses. First, women may not feel ambitious if they believe that their work cannot accommodate their responsibilities outside of work, as they may be unwilling to trade off their gender roles at home. Alternatively, they may not feel ambitious because they recognise barriers to career progression when they do not fit the ideal worker/male breadwinner. As a result, they may self-select out of career advancement opportunities. Either way, the solution is the same: we need to reform how organisations design work and leadership so that women can feel confident that their ambitions can be realised.
5. Have you done this survey in the US, or is there anything comparable?
No, however, other consulting firms like McKinsey and Deloitte have published research series that have extensively explored the USA, and outcomes are similar.
6. My daughter works for a woman-run corporation but has found these barriers to be very much in play. Is there a difference in organizations with women at the top?
Yes, the situation will improve when there are more women in leadership and decision-making roles, but this does not mean that women are not influenced by social structures that reinforce patriarchal values. We are all exposed to and affected by these structures. Even when there are more women than men in a profession, men, as the minority, still tend to hold most leadership positions. However, the barriers in environments with more women will be less intense compared to male-dominated ones.
7. Have you explored recommendations that women can initiate and at least begin to implement without waiting for organizational change from the top?
Things You Can Do Here:
- Enhance Your Visibility: This helps to counteract the “think leader, think men” barrier.
- Build Alliances and Networks: Identify colleagues who have more resources and decision-making powers than you but also care about gender equality. Connect with them!
- Form Employee Resource Groups if possible: These can help improve voice behavior (people speaking up).
- Address Implicit Bias: Challenge gender assumptions during conversations with peers and managers where it’s appropriate and safe to do so.
- Propose Small Changes to HR: Suggest not asking for previous salaries during interviews, ensuring gender-balanced panels for interviews, or introducing gender ratios for succession planning.
- Advocate for other women: In meetings, support your female colleagues by nudgeing them to finish their contributions if they are interrupted (even by other women).
- Collaborate Across Identities: Work together with other minoritised identities to achieve critical mass for nudging change and building coalitions.
- Join Industry Groups and Pledges: Take an active role in organisations that promote gender equality.
- Advocate Publicly: Use platforms like LinkedIn to promote gender equity.
- Showcase Your Results and Performance: This helps counteract gender stereotypes impacting women in the workplace.
- Be Prepared for Pushback: Build a support network and mentor the next generation to withstand challenges.
Remember, not everything might work, but the secret is resilience and making small progress, especially when you have limited access to resources and governance.
8. How do you realistically address corporate bullying and harassment when HR is often part of the problem, often enabling this behaviour in order to protect management and the company? This is further compounded by NDAs when affected employees are forced to leave after unsuccessfully looking to report this behaviour to HR.
Most companies that genuinely care about gender equity tend to have strong HR structures in place to ensure independence and quality. The challenge for these companies lies in how their policies are implemented at local or country levels as usually HR personnel tend to be more junior, do both ER and business partnering, and they report into business management. So, it is super hard to maintain independence. Anonymous reporting can help senior/global HR teams gain visibility into what is happening on the ground. Several strategies can enhance independence. First, it is advisable to separate Employee Relations (ER) teams from Business Partnering, if possible. Alternatively, ensure that your casework team is from a different part of the organisation. Introducing anonymous reporting and conducting service satisfaction surveys with the wider audience (not only leaders) for support functions like HR can also be beneficial. Additionally, in the UK, changes will become even more significant with the Worker Protection Act, as companies are now expected to prevent bullying and harassment.
9. How do we deal with women’s own bias against other women?
Some women may have internalised sexism as it was an integral part of their identity while growing up. As a result, they may not even be aware of how their beliefs impact other women. I suggest that it is important to respect where they are in their understanding but also invite them to consider how other women might experience things differently. Particularly as a leader, it is crucial to recognise that your own lived experience does not represent everyone’s reality. Therefore, you need to explore a variety of perspectives in order to lead your direct reports effectively and inclusively. This isn’t about changing their views or how they manage their own lives; rather, it’s about expanding perspectives so that as leaders, we can acknowledge the different experiences women have around gender. Lastly, if there isn’t any progress, it’s important to focus on other allies. Not every woman will be an ally, but every ally will care for all women and their diverse lived experiences.
10. Will there also be research about how Women support each other. Because sometimes it is not the men, but also the women who fear other women.
There are lots of feminist scholars who explored the power of sisterhood in addressing oppression collectively like Bell Hooks (1984). However, there is also evidence of the Queen Bee Phenomenon (when women in leadership roles are more competitive and harder with other women). This tends to happen because of systemic pressures like gender stereotype threats (women being associated with other women as they are not as valued at work as men- so there might be an unconscious dissociation) rather than inherent hostility so in many cases awareness might help to mitigate the phenomenon.