International Women's Day: For more equality and career advancement in companies

Since March 8, 1911, International Women's Day has called on people to campaign for equal rights for women and to take a critical look at the status of equality. Of course, Europe cannot be compared with countries where women still have to fight for their right to vote or educational opportunities. Nevertheless, even in this country, studies such as those on salary comparisons or the proportion of women in management positions show that equality is still a long way off. Many companies therefore use International Women's Day as an opportunity to review the status in their own company and initiate measures for equality. In November, National Future Day also calls for girls to be informed early on about professions and career opportunities in which women are underrepresented. This topic is also of great interest to HR and personnel managers. After all, especially in times of a shortage of skilled workers, companies do not want to lose female experts due to dissatisfaction, nor do they want to halve their talent pool for the future by having young women not even consider certain occupational fields as a career.

International Women's Day Reminds of Status Quo

Even though gender equality has long been anchored in many countries, inequalities still exist, for example in wages. In 33 OECD countries, women earn on average 16 percent less than men, according to the latest "Women-in-Work" Index 2018 by PwC revealed. Progress in the proportion of women in leadership positions has been similarly limited: From reports by the European Commission shows that women in Europe are more highly qualified than men overall. In 2016, for example, 44 percent of women aged 30 to 34 had a university degree. For men, the figure was 34 percent. The proportion of female managers was nevertheless 16 percent lower on average in the EU. In Switzerland, on the other hand, the proportion of women in management positions is rising, as shown by the latest "shillingreport" by human resources consultant Guido Schilling AG, shows. The proportion of women on the boards of the 100 largest Swiss employers cracks the 20 % mark for the first time, rising from 19 % to 21 %.

Measures for more gender diversity

But in many other companies, there is still little sign of gender diversity. Has the law failed? Are the legal requirements being ignored by companies? Or are women themselves ultimately to blame for their situation? "Legal requirements and societal pressure are important for closing the gender pay gap. But it's also up to the companies and the women themselves," explains Doris Niederwieser, Customer Sales Director DACH at SumTotal, a solution provider for human capital and talent management. "For example, women need to negotiate better in salary matters. They often tend to simply accept job and salary offers, while men tend to negotiate salary and other benefits more aggressively." SumTotal sees five measures to counteract this:

1. Gender Pay Gap - Analysis and Transparency: Companies that actively work to increase transparency in the pay structures within their organization have much to gain. By analyzing and quantifying gender pay gaps, they gain a comprehensive understanding of the causes that have contributed to the pay gap. On this basis, they can specifically counter unconscious biases or even consciously developed strategies that have led to unequal treatment and pay inequity. Managers should develop an awareness of diversity in their company. Furthermore, it should be ensured that wage increases are not only awarded to those who negotiate them briskly - usually far more men.
2. Equality starts with hiring: Equality already starts when women join companies. On average, women are offered less salary than men for the same position, even though this is illegal by law. Employees' salaries should be calculated solely on the basis of their professional skills, social competence and experience, and not on the basis of gender or other socio-demographic characteristics. Applicants' previous salaries may also result from inequities at previous employers.
3. Planning succession with female executives: According to a recent Whitepaper of the corporate learning specialist Skillsoft, 92 percent of working women complain about the lack of female managers, and 71 percent also complain about inadequate corporate strategies for developing female managers. Companies that discover from their GPG analysis that management positions are held by a majority of men and that the pay gap is large should definitely develop a consistent succession planning strategy in order to achieve a better balance in the staffing of their management ranks in the future.
4. Adapt best practices: Numerous initiatives, such as the international Paradigm for Parity movement, have been initiated by companies that are leading the way in terms of gender equality in the workplace. These movements highlight the productivity benefits that companies can achieve with a diverse workforce and a balanced proportion of women in leadership positions. They also provide impetus, recommended actions and best practices on how to curb the gender pay gap and create true equality within a company.
5. Activating talent for the future: The National Future Day, which will take place on November 14 in 2019, is a day of action aimed at motivating the younger generation to also take up technical and scientific professions. These are still often seen as the domain of men. As part of this Future Day, girls are also to be inspired to choose careers in traditionally "male" fields.