As part of our series of Industry Peer Events, Diversity Mark was delighted to host Gillian Harford, Country executive at the 30% club. We talked about the Importance of Gender Equality and why we need to keep it at the forefront of our work in diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
We support this focus as part of the Bronze Diversity Mark Accreditation with the requirement of the first three goals to focus on gender and these continue to be assessed through the Silver stage, where we require 5 goals and then Gold stage where we require 7 goals.
- Over 50% of the population are female so straight away it breaks the bias that we are part of a majority gender and therefore gender is a majority issue.
The data tells us that if gender is a key priority and there are measurable actions put in place from the get-go, minority voices and other under represented groups are amplified. It also tells us employees will be more willing and open to listening and understanding different cultures and behaviours within the workplace.
There is still a huge amount of work to do to achieve gender equality and according to the World Economic Forum, the time it will take to close the gender gap has grown by a massive 36 years in just 12 months. This means it will now take an estimated 135.6 years for men and women to reach parity.
- Deloitte – less than 20% of board positions are held by females (2021)
Gillian is a strong advocate for advancing the role of Women at Senior Leadership and Board levels and the Country Executive (CEO) for the 30% Club in Ireland and shared her experiences as a highly qualified Senior HR & Change expert with more than 40 years’ experience leading people transformation and business change to more than 10,000 employees. Gillian highlighted some key facts during our fireside hosted by Nuala Murphy and contributed by our attendees:
- What % of females within your organisation have influence and hold decision making roles?
- The key challenge in Gender Pay Gap reporting is that it is perceived as an equal pay issue but it is actually an unequal representation issue.
- There is no one action or magic wand, think about what is right for your organisation. Think about tactically and analyse data.
- There are multiple different groups and organisations working on multiple solutions and we need to all come together to effectively make change moving forward.
https://30percentclub.org/chapters/ireland
https://stemteacherinternships.ie/ For a video click here
Full Session available from our YouTube channel by clicking here
If you have not yet joined Diversity Mark on your company’s Diversity and Inclusion journey please reach out to emma@diversity-mark-ni.co.uk to discuss the benefits and process.
