”I remember as a schoolgirl going to the theatre, to the opera, to concerts in the evenings. I had a French teacher who taught me to appreciate opera, who instilled in me a love of theatre performances and symphony concerts.
But, as we lived in a neighborhood of houses that you reached after crossing a rather large and dark park (at that time we didn’t have electricity like today, available anytime), coming home was always a challenge. Sometimes it was the moon that accompanied me through the park, watching over my fate. I often heard about a woman who had been robbed, beaten, abused. I didn’t know if I was more afraid when it was just me and the moon on the road or when I met a man. I was lucky, my guardian angel was always there during those years.
Years later, I promised myself that I would live in places where I wouldn’t be afraid to come home at night, even if I was alone. As a woman, my perception, influenced by my own history and the news I’ve heard throughout my life, is that it can be quite unpleasant to go through many places alone. Those who have a car, underground parking at home and at the office may disagree with me or not necessarily resonate with what I’ve said. From the car you don’t see much. But maybe it’s good to remember that the world isn’t just like our universe. If we turn on the TV, news about toxic individuals abusing women, treating them like slaves, or killing them in the name of some rule, makes us ask big questions about the world we live in. There are bubbles of balance, of equality, it’s true, but I don’t think we are yet in a civilised world where you are not assaulted regardless of gender, regardless of how you look.
Those who have ever played poker know that when cards are dealt, some get the best, some get the worst. When you start the game with a poor hand of cards, your efforts to succeed are high. That’s pretty much how it seems to me when it comes to women. I look around at people who have families with children, have a job with many responsibilities, and are involved in various associations, in society, and I wonder how they manage to keep themselves in balance. It seems to me that they are worthy of all admiration. At the same time, society can certainly be more attentive, inclusive, and empathetic.
Times have changed, and it’s good to keep up with them.
Studies show that over 60% of purchasing decisions are made by women. Globally, women make up 60% of the pool of young people graduating from university. Of course, we may wonder what happens to the declining percentage of the male population when it comes to attending college, but that can be a topic for another time.
If we think about global diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, the fact that younger generations are no longer attracted to companies that do not demonstrate respect for all races, all genders, nationalities, preferences, marital status, that is becoming increasingly difficult for organisations to attract and retain people with very good skills, then it is clear that something major needs to be rethought in terms of the workforce.
DEI has been much talked about for a few years now, I sincerely hope that it won’t remain just a meme that no one trusts anymore because it became empty. Many companies that initiate DEI projects make grand statements, put up posters, set lofty goals that they wave around in general meetings, internal brochures, marketing campaigns, but don’t change anything about the culture of the organisation and its structure. The effect is that employees who are marginalised are not treated well, and people end up losing faith in internal projects declared with great fanfare by HR or management.
For example, there is often diversity only at the first level in the company. But the higher up the ladder you go, the more this diversity fades, bit by bit. I’m going to focus on gender diversity here, especially women and men. But this is a big focus, given that we are talking about more than 50 genders globally. But to avoid falling into the trap of overwhelming complexity, let’s imagine looking at this topic with a camera whose lens focuses on only part of the whole.
Why is it important to look (also) at this kind of diversity? Or, rather, inclusion. Because diversity without a sense of inclusion is just an intellectual exercise, just numbers to make it look good. Here are some possible answers.
According to studies, companies with gender balance on the leadership team have a 15% higher net profit than those without. Yet every company is looking to make a profit.
I was reading somewhere that if the late 20th century was about increasing the number of women in leadership positions, the 21st century will be about men adapting to the consequences of growth.
The main challenge of this kind of change, even where it is desired beyond the declarative level, is that it is by no means easy. In most cases, the higher up in the organisation we look, the less we see diversity. The natural tendency is to hire people similar to us. If the board team is all male, it will look for individuals similar to itself. And, in many cases, if a woman is imposed on them, they don’t include her; they don’t create space for another way of expressing themselves.
Why does this happen? Harvard Business School developed a questionnaire based on what they called Similarity Attraction Theory. The theory holds that people have more positive interactions with those similar to them. If we look at Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking Fast and Slow, we can also find explanations. Kahneman writes about system 1 and system 2 thinking. System 1 acts unconsciously, quickly, automatically, emotionally; system 2 is logical, slow, fact-seeking, analyzing. In most cases, people use system 1. Therefore, they will choose those similar to them in most situations. The Harvard test, which you can take for free online, asks us to answer a quick series of questions, rapidly choose between a few options, and at the end, it confronts us with some biases we have in terms of how we see men and women.
What to do? Here are some ideas for an organisation that aims to be more inclusive:
- Awareness
- Being treated equally is a human right
- Self-knowledge and acceptance of others, of differences
- What does DEI mean for us internally? At the top management level but not only
- What do we want with this initiative? What is the aim, what do we want? It is important to establish a common internal vision for the company.
- Alignment, compliance with international standards. Many companies have gender balance, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives because “it’s the right thing to do”, “it’s trendy”, “it’s in line with EU, UN, SDG, WEF standards” or others. This alignment has some benefits, if nothing else. But in order to bring about transformations at a deep level of mindset, of behaviours in the organisation, it is necessary for management teams to go through phase 1 and then engage the whole organisation in an awareness raising process.
- Implement the standards, that walk the talk:
- Supporting people to change the status quo
- Highlighting, rewarding those who demonstrate the desired behaviours
- Continuous feedback when we notice deviations from standards, support for improvement
- Controlling the tendency, the impulse to look for culprits
A key issue is for the CEO to be the first ambassador for inclusion initiatives. Without support from them and the top management team, I don’t think there is sustainable and scalable change without them demonstrating the behaviors they want to be implemented.
Another issue is rethinking the labels that we, the people, have also put on ourselves.
I like to think that empathy, caring, flexibility, compassion, are not feminine traits but are traits of an educated individual, with a level of wisdom, adaptation, concern for the other, that come with being a HUMAN.
A good leader is one who also shows empathy, care for those who work (and) for him (or her), in addition to the ability to make decisions, to bring order to chaos, to see beyond what is obvious to all, digital skills, strategic, critical thinking.
I think there are higher expectations for a woman leader to develop her team, to invest time in conversations with each individual, in addition to the behaviors expected of a leadership role. When it comes to rewarding employee-focused leadership behaviors, globally, it seems that male leaders are more valued precisely because the expectations for them to be focused on the people on the team are not as high. If expectations are low, then any initiative seems like an extra mile. If expectations are high, then any effort seems to be in the “taken for granted” category.
Drawing the line and being honest with ourselves, these discrepancies should be reduced if we are to have leaders better suited for the 21st century.”
via: Revista Cariere
