Systematic accountability

Organizations have to acknowledge the wider political and economic contexts they operate in and how it affects their women employees. In order to address these systemic conditions, organizations have to engage with external stakeholders, such as governments or other private sector actors, to achieve long-term systemic change. This could include, for example, engaging with other companies in your sector to benchmark a living wage or to engage with governments on issues such as social protection.

Climate change, environmental degradation and disaster preparedness

Due to existing gender inequality, women are disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change, environmental degradation and disasters. This is because women worldwide are still disproportionately held responsible for care work, such as food production for the household, collecting water and taking care of the sick. When these activities become more difficult or time-consuming, due to climate-related drought, floods or disasters, it takes up more of women’s time. Time they could have spend becoming more economically resilient, by taking up full-time jobs or enrolling in education. In addition, because women worldwide are more economically dependent, they are less economically resilient to economic shocks caused by disasters, such as earthquakes, droughts, floods and extreme weather events.

Your organization can support women employees in becoming more resilient against the effects of climate change and disasters, by proving decent work opportunities and a living wage. As well as by making sure your organization reduces its carbon emissions, pollution, energy usage and strain on natural resources, such as land and water to counter the effects of climate change.

Social and cultural norms

Social and cultural norms are pivotal in determining the kinds of work women can do. For example, some types of work are considered more ‘ideal’ for women since they might come ‘naturally’ to women. For example, work involving physical strain is considered less suitable for women. Norms also shape the structural factors, values, attitude and company norms of an organization. It is therefore essential for your organization to acknowledge the impact social and cultural norms could have within the workplace.

Although it could be difficult for your organization to influence the social and cultural norms within society. It is important that your organization sets a precedent by stimulating structural factors, values, attitudes and company norms within the organization that are conducive to women’s economic empowerment. This could include:

  • addressing stereotypes and conservative gender roles within your organizations’ policies, procedures, marketing and communication
  • regular evaluation of company policies, priorities and values to remove any entrenched unconscious biases,
  • co-creation of team-specific/organization-specific norms for setting expectations,
  • gender auditing: Collecting data regarding institutionalization of gender equality within the organization will enable organizations to assess the effectiveness of existing policies and practices and alter it to best fit women’s needs and
  • gender-responsive budgeting: this refers to the incorporation of a gender lens at all stages of budgetary planning and restructuring budgets to provide for gender equality within the organization.