Group 5_B | SDG 5: Gender Equality

Sustainability Development Goal 5: Gender Equality

Preface

The unequal treatment of girls and women in the society as compared to the men has been prevalent ever since the existence of mankind. The human history is filled with praises for the valour of the mighty men. But it also incorporates the dreadful past of the women, as recipients of centuries of discrimination, domestication, abuse and silencing. The so-called biologically superior homo sapiens has started to recognize the immense potential of the “softer” gender only in the recent past couple of decades, that too because the voices of the women couldn’t be ignored any longer. The UNICEF describes gender equality as “women and men, and girls and boys, enjoy the same rights, resources, opportunities and protections.” This social stigma is not merely a human rights violation. We are denying almost half the population of the world to an equal chance to live their life to the fullest. We are even denying their life in this world by committing female infanticide. In today’s world, the need is to not just bring equality to the two genders, but to provide a gender-neutral sustainable environment for all, irrespective of whether the person is a male, female or transgender. The aim is to break these barriers of gender differentiation and just let the merits of one speak for the person.

Keeping in mind the menacing repercussions of gender inequality, the United Nations included gender equality as one among the seventeen goals in the global Sustainable Development Goals, to be achieved by 2030. The primary targets involve ending discrimination against females, ending all violence and exploitation against women and girls, eliminating forced marriages and genital mutilation, valuing unpaid care and promoting shared domestic responsibilities, ensuring complete participation in leadership, and providing universal access to reproductive health and rights. With the involvement of more than 193 member countries of the UN, the idea of women empowerment and gender equality will finally be addressed on a global scale.

Indian Context

While India has been growing at a rate of 7% for the past two decades, the fertility rate is reducing, and women are better educated than ever, the female employment rate is rapidly declining. It was already low at 35% in 2005, which has reduced to just 26% now. The lack of women's participation in the workforce is one reason why India remains poor.

If India increases the female employment level to the male level, it would be 27% richer. Along with economic benefits, there are other social benefits as well. If women work, they are less likely to be victims of domestic violence. Working women spend more on the child's wellbeing. Women who work play a significant role in reducing infant mortality, malnutrition and increasing the country's education rate. Rebalancing the workforce would lead to the rise of Indians to middle-income status.

The drop in female employment levels can be attributed to various reasons. It can be a sign of progress as more girls get into school for longer; they are likely to drop out of work. But reduction can't be attributed to school alone. In India, as families get more prosperous, women are less likely to work. Family social standing is seen from its women at home (similar to middle eastern countries). Most women who worked in agriculture got unemployed as families migrated to cities. Many women drop out of the workforce, citing family obligations and child responsibilities.

Promoting education might not work in the Indian context. The more schooling an Indian woman receives, the less likely she is to work, at least if she has anything less than a university degree. Similarly, urbanization: city-dwelling women are half as likely as rural ones to have a job. Indian women spend their time doing 90% of the housework, which is highest than in any country. Measures that reduce that time are likely to have an impact. If men spent just two hours a week doing the dishes or putting the kids to bed, it would result in a ten-percentage point increase in female labor participation. Similarly, Ujjwala Yojana, which promises to reduce the gathering of wood or cow-dung (still used in over half of all households and mainly foraged by women) by up to an hour a day, can also boost female participation.

Business Implication

The McKinsey and Company's Global Institute report estimates that equality in opportunities and abolition of gender-based discrimination in business could add $28 trillion to the global GDP by 2025, which is similar to the size of US and Chinese economies combined.

Businesses that support gender equality in their companies tend to be more profitable as they make better business decisions. Various research has shown that inclusive teams can make sound business choices up to 87% of the time. In contrast, groups that have less diversity tend to make poor decisions for their organizations. A study conducted by McKinsey & Company, in which more than 1000 organizations were analyzed, proved that companies with better gender balance in their executive teams have chances of making higher profits and create long-term value for their companies. And the study also stated that companies with a low ratio in terms of gender and racial diversity tend to make less profit and ultimately less money up to 29% of the time. Therefore, we can conclude that it is harmful to the company if its leadership and the executive team does not have gender parity.

When women have access to career growth opportunities, they can have a significant impact on business. When given authority, they launch programs that initiate the process of equity and support minorities and women throughout the company. As a result, the departments led by women are usually the highest producing teams with low turnover rates.

Corporations that prove their commitment to gender diversity are more likely to attract better talent and even retain them. It is heartwarming to see that now more companies are making gender diversity their top priority and taking initiatives in this regard. However, this commitment to gender balance is sometimes not reflected in the organization's culture and policies. This ultimately affects the employee's job satisfaction and affects how long both women and men want to stay with the organization.

The impact and responses on businesses promoting and working towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality are multifold. One of the drivers for a country’s economic growth in this era is the increasing role of women in the workforce. Increased representation of women in the labour force, active measures taken to promote gender neutrality, reducing wage differentials and efforts to promote women to take up top leadership positions in different firms. There is unrealised potential in India which shall bear a significant result when utilised efficiently.

In India, the concentration of female employees exceeds 50 % in tobacco, chemical and paper industries. It hovers around 30 percent in education and sanitation-based industries and a mere 2 percent in technical and equipment heavy industries. Female employment is more in states which have higher literacy levels compared to others.

Recruiting women for jobs across diverse sectors provides a sense of social autonomy and independence in economic terms. According to a McKinsey Report, efforts devoted towards improving women’s status in the workforce could potentially add $12 trillion to growth on a global level and increasing participation of women in the labour force by around 10 percentage points could make an addition of $700 billion to India’s GDP by 2025. Valuing and encouraging women to take up work is critical to make businesses and the economy more prosperous. It leads to lesser poverty as more income is generated and tends to get invested for the benefit of children and communities, hence resulting in a more holistic development.

Company Analysis

Almost all corporate firms are aligning their company policies to further the cause of gender equality and diversity through their initiatives, policy changes and CSR activities.

Even though consulting industry is still male dominated, big consulting firms like the Boston Consulting Group had launched its women’s Initiative 'Women@BCG' with the aim of increasing the number of women employees in senior leadership roles and creating an effective work environment. The company also has specific goals in place to make its workplace more diverse and inclusive. The firm also has set mechanisms that cater to diversity and inclusion initiatives and regularly assess progress and innovation.

Bain and Company aims to cultivate an atmosphere that allows women to achieve their full potential as part of their 'Women at Bain' campaign. The goal of the initiative is true parity and equal access to opportunities, full support of individuals. The gender pay disparity in all positions and levels is high in the consulting industry due to the skewed employee mix. Since 2017, the median gap at Bain has narrowed by 11 per cent and has been driven by a rise in female representation across the board and an increase in female leadership.

Asian paints endeavors to create an impact on the issue of gender equality and diversity with fresh ideas and creativity that resonate with consumers. For instance, the company collaborated with Adidas and a Delhi based art collective to paint the basketball court at St. Andrews High School in Mumbai. Apart from that it has also launched a 'Colour Academy' to empower women painters. Although these initiatives help in creating awareness about gender equality and diversity but the total women employees in Asian Paints amount to just 6.5% of the total number of permanent employees. Intrinsic structural changes are required to increase this figure.

Even Automobile Companies like Bajaj Auto Ltd. employs 471 women out of which only 201 are regular employees. Although all of its plants have female employees but major policy and law changes need to be put in place that create an environment for women to work in conditions usually dominated by men (assembly line, manufacturing etc.) The company has undertaken CSR activities to further the cause of gender equality, these include construction of women hostel in IISER Pune and Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan.

Companies in the e-commerce industry are not lagging behind when it comes to employing gender diversity in the workplace. Amazon initiated a series of initiatives intended to further increase the number of women in technology and engineering roles through their 'AWS Get It' initiative. They invest in programs that build mentoring opportunities to hire and help more women progress to senior positions. Among its global staff, 42.7% are women and 27.5% are women among managers worldwide.

The Pharmaceutical company Sanofi has included a gender diversity target of 50/50 in the success goal of its Executive Committee. They strive to elevate women through the company, create a more supportive and inclusive atmosphere in the workplace. Sanofi's Elle Women initiative in Africa & Middle East focuses on engaging and maintaining female talent with career pathways in non-traditional positions. Sanofi Brazil was recognized in the 'Pro-Gender & Racial Equality Initiative' 2016. It aims at alleviating any discrimination on the basis of gender and at the same time offering compensation.

Way Ahead

Most of the time, gender equality and diversity in the workplace are interpreted in a counterproductive manner, which involves imposing and acting upon specific quotas to recruit people from the minority genders to hit a certain number or a goal. Therefore, before meeting such targets, the organization needs to understand that diversity and equality have varied actionable constituencies that they need to cater to.

The organization should focus on retaining its employees. Exit interviews can be a good way to understand the reason of employees leaving the organization. In case of women, it might centre around some life stage related issues, in which case the company should provide essential support if employees wish to join back. The company can also get a view of its workplace environment through these interviews and restructure its system and policies accordingly.

There are a lot of biases involved as well that discriminate against women and other minority genders. Some of them are long working hours, disproportionate travel quotient, lack of congenial interactions among employees. Therefore, companies must take the right initiatives to sensitize employees about how to uphold equality and reject biases.

Workshops, targeted mentoring programs (mostly for women employees), and leadership initiatives to strengthen women's advancement and contribution in the workplace should be adopted. These initiatives should not alienate men and should be made so that men become supportive allies and help in the furtherance of the cause of equal opportunity and growth. Business leaders must engage in these programs in order to translate into meaningful progress.

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