A global standard for gender equality

Is there a global standard for gender equality? Could we use such a standard to hold companies accountable for their progress toward providing men and women with equal opportunities?

Today, a handful of countries, mostly in Europe and Latin America, have implemented national certification systems that cover some aspects of gender equality. However, there is no global standard that can be applied by the world’s largest companies. Given their reach and the potential role such companies could play, we believe that a global equality standard could have a sweeping impact.

With this idea in mind we’ve set out to develop an assessment methodology that would enable companies to gain a comprehensive understanding of where they stand in terms of gender equality. This methodology can serve as a management tool while at the same time forming the basis of a global standard on gender equality. Companies that meet the standard will be recognized by a gender equality label, to be launched in January 2011 by our foundation, the Gender Equality Project.

Our assessment tool focuses on five areas: equal pay for equivalent work, recruitment and promotion, training and mentoring, work-life balance, and company culture. In each of these areas, we seek to capture not only outcomes, but also the policies that have proven to be most effective in fostering equal opportunities between men and women in the workplace. Companies are scored on these quantitative and qualitative measures.

Policy and cultural differences across countries as well as labor market differences across industries are bound to have an impact on the outcomes certain firms can achieve. However, we can trace a path toward success by setting benchmarks linked to the practices that are known to close gender gaps, and by including company culture as one of the dimensions to be analyzed.

It is often said that what gets measured gets done. To this we would add: especially if what is measured is reported. If we look at other areas, notably climate change, we can draw inspiration from the emergence of new standards that no one would have envisioned a few years ago. Not only do today’s carmakers routinely report on the carbon-dioxide emissions of their vehicles, but this has become a significant factor influencing customer decisions.

We look forward to the day when gender equality will have become another standard that companies routinely report on—a standard that no company can do without if it wants to remain competitive in the global marketplace. –Nicole Schwab & Aniela Unguresan, BUsinessmirror