It's a startling thought, but the latest World Economic Report shows it will take 217 years to achieve gender parity.
"We Won't Be Alive in a Time of Gender Equality." This startling thought came to me courtesy of an HR professional at a Women's Leadership Conference I attended this year. It was a statement made by Ronnie West, the EVP of HR for Ipreo, one of the guest speakers in the "Why Championing Women is Good for Business" session I was in, and I couldn't help but stop. Stop everything. Hold on. What???
My mind went through all of these thoughts in quick succesion, "Could that be true? I will be dead before we realize gender equality? Is that right? Wow, it might be true." West cited a study done by the World Economic Forum. The 2017 results were, with the current rate of change, it will take 217 years to achieve gender parity. The 2016 results were 170 years. So we actually slowed down this past year. I'm hoping the 2018 results are better, but I guess that's yet to be seen.
The next thing he said brought me back out of my own thoughts and back into reality, "...but that doesn't mean we shouldn't fight for it every day." And I cheered, and I was right there back in the game, ready to pick up the flag again.
West shared with us stores of his childhood to demonstrate how he has always been about inclusion. It is his passion. As a child he regularly visited a disabled children's home to bring the children out for a day of fun, to include them. This passion for inclusion led him into his career as an HR professional, now consulting for businesses on high-profile issues like pay parity, diversity, and equality.
Now the issue of gender equality has gone beyond - it feels good, it looks good on paper. Now gender equality comes down to economics. West shared that if there were gender parity in the US, the GDP would go up 5% immediately. Businesses (and shareholders) have now started to take notice.
So my question to Ronnie West was, "How can women approach their companies on the topic of gender parity for pay and promotions into senior positions?" His answer was that the CEO must be behind the cause. So it sounds like for this to work, you really need to be in a leadership position to have a direct influence on the CEO (like the VP of HR). He also said that companies should implement a 50/50 quota for hiring graduates male/female to build a pipeline of potential candidates for internal promotions.
I like his ideas, and they are good. If you are in HR or already in a Senior Leadership position, I hope you'll take them as food for thought to help your company develop its own strategies. However if you not in one of those positions, but you still want to make a difference, check out the article I wrote earlier this year on 7 Ways YOU Can Push for #EqualPay and Help End the #GenderPayGap.
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