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Stop gender inequality and gender stereotyping

A significantly growing number of organizations and individuals around the world have been working very hard to try and bridge gender inequality, especially at work. The negative impact of discrimination against women spans across physical and mental health as well as social and economic factors. 20-first is a leading gender diversity consultancy and they say the issue of women empowerment, along with three other W's (weather, web, world) have been important 21st century shifts. Unfortunately it seems in the area of women, we've progressed very little. They published their fifth annual gender balance scorecard and the study found in Europe's top 100 companies, the situation for women was not very promising. Men hold 89 per cent of executive committee jobs; women hold 6 per cent of staff roles and 5 per cent are in line roles. The gender balance was even worse in Asia, where men hold 96 per cent of senior roles, leaving 3 per cent of women in staff roles and 1 per cent in line roles.
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, 20-first's CEO, says we have miss-framed and miss-analysed the problem, categorising it as a diversity dimension. 'Gender diversity is an oxymoron given only two genders exist,' she explains. 'Besides, if women are 60 per cent of global work talent (i.e. the world's college graduates) and make 80 per cent of the purchasing decisions of consumer goods, then why is adding more women leaders adding diversity?'
Having been involved in many women and leadership initiatives, I was thrilled when my path crossed with Tiffany Kelly, the founding partner of The Global Shine Initiative. She explains that we are impacting our world in a way that is unsustainable and current leadership action doesn't seem to be changing this fact. If we want to leave a world that is enjoyable and prosperous for future generations we need to not only change what we're doing but also how we're thinking. In fact, changing mindset might be the single most important thing that we can do right now.
We are living in a world that has been dominated by masculine leadership and decision making, meaning we have been focused on survival of the fittest rather than creating a collaborative, nurturing society that is balanced. This is the reason that Tiffany created the Global 'Finding Balance' Campaign. The main aim is to create a groundswell of individuals passionate about creating a society where everyone is equal and has opportunity to contribute and develop.
Finding Balance is about educating and inspiring young people about the importance of balance and empowering them to courageously redefine how we exist in the global ecosystem.
Through the Global Summits, in Tokyo, Dubai and London, Tiffany and her team intend to bring together a cross section of generations and expertise to imagine and commit to a world where finding and creating balance is the focus. Through their Empowering Women to Shine Programmes they are hoping to unlock potential in women around the world, help them to overcome their self limiting beliefs and as current primary care givers, create leadership action that makes change happen.
'We want to stop gender stereotyping and social conditioning at the root cause so we don't have to continually fight for equality. Through imagination and creativity we will facilitate conversations and commitments to action that will begin a journey of transformation and sustainable change. We will share the outputs of the Finding Balance Campaign with leaders and policy makers around the world in the hope that we influence a greater global mindset change.' Tiffany passionately explains.
The campaign will be delivered through September and October this year and focused on Asia (through Japan), the UAE (through Dubai) and Europe (through London). Tiffany is inviting specific organisations and individuals to join the conversation based on their values, reach and desire to create a world that is empowering for all.
You see, it's not about fixing women or turning them into men. This is an issue that needs to involve men and women so that we can recognise and reward the strengths of both and avoid marginalisation of either gender from the talent pool.
Change should happen slowly and collaboratively, along the lines of what is culturally and socially appropriate in each country. Resistance to change should be reflected upon, every step of the way, not to blame or find faults, but to find solutions and design strategies that will remove obstacles in the way of achieving gender balance.
As 20-first explain 'traditional approaches haven't worked so managers need to get, buy it and sell.' We all need to broaden our view to better understand the root causes so that we can start as parents when raising our children and communicate messages of gender balance to our children. So instead of teaching our girls about glass slippers, let's focus more on educating them about shattering glass ceilings.
Dr Samineh I. Shaheem is an assistant professor of psychology, learning & development specialist and the owner of Life Clubs UAE. Forward your thoughts/ suggestions for future articles to OutOfMindContact@gmail.com