International Women’s Day – #BalanceForBetter
Friday the 8th March is International Women’s Day and the focus is #BalanceForBetter.
It’s all about building a gender-balanced working world.
Whether it’s a gender-balanced boardroom, a gender-balanced government, gender-balanced media coverage, a gender-balance of employees, more gender-balance in wealth, gender-balanced sports coverage …
Gender balance is essential for economies and communities to thrive.
You might think this is just about getting more women in the boardroom and yes, it is partly. It is also about keeping gender parity in mind at work and challenging stereotypes and bias in day to day situations.
Progress has been made and there have been many positive changes across the world, such as:
- 32% of MPs elected in 2017 were women
- In September 2018 the 30% Club achieved it’s goal in the UK of having 30% women on the boards of all FTSE100 companies
- In America 102 women won House seats and 14 Senate Seats
- Plus 9 Governors elected were women
But…
- Only 1 in 10 of senior leaders is a woman
- Of managers 68% are male and only 32% female
- Women are twice as likely to be mistaken for someone more junior
- And twice as likely to need to provide more evidence of their competence at work
- For every 100 men promoted from entry level roles only 79 women are
- Women won only 15% of science prizes
- And only 4% of top movies were directed by women
Confidence, society and childcare etc all affect these figures. However, women today are stepping up more but the system isn’t helping them.
In some organisations the unconscious bias, the stereotyping of leaders and even the ‘Old Boys Club’ still exist.
So what can you do?
Visit the International Women’s Day website here and have a look at their free resources
Set up or join a Lean In Circle at your organisation or in your industry
Attend an IWD event
Have a happy and balanced International Women’s Day
Jo x