March 8 is International Women’s Day. It’s a “global day to recognize and celebrate women’s and girls’ social, economic, cultural, and political achievements. It’s also a time to raise awareness of the progress made towards achieving gender equality and the work remaining to be done.”
On February 21, we tasked ourselves with learning about the work that remains to be done for women’s equality and acknowledging the situation in our work environment. Using the World Café method, we had lunch with the women of Lü to discuss their issues, concerns, and realities in an open, non-judgmental way.
We must admit, as Quebec women working for a company that takes the well-being of its entire team to heart, we’re quite privileged. That doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement. We began by talking about the status of women around the world, those close to us, and ourselves with the added mental load that the pandemic years have created for so many. Despite the progress we’ve made in the past decades, we can’t help but notice that women’s equality hasn’t been achieved; in fact, it’s even declined in recent years.
1. What should be done for women to achieve equality?
What a great question! We talked about education, both access to education and the way we educate our children in the hopes of closing the perceived gaps between boys and girls. One point that especially caught our attention:
“A good start would certainly be to stop assigning a gender to certain professions. Why can’t a woman be a mechanic? Why can’t a man work in a daycare? Why do ‘women’s’ jobs pay less? Why are management positions in some companies still more often held by men? This has to change!”
This discussion made us aware of this stereotype in our industry and even within our company. We have many women in our company, but we realized that most of them are in positions that are traditionally held by women. So, we are challenging ourselves to be more involved in initiatives that encourage the representation of women in non-traditional occupations and to be more proactive in our recruitment to promote gender diversity.
2. Which women’s issues worry you the most when you think about the future?
Women’s rights and safety came up right away. We’re concerned about the global sociopolitical shifts we’re seeing: abolition of abortion rights, withdrawal of access to education, harassment, and sexual assault are all concerns we have for ourselves and for women in the future.
In workplaces, we’ve noticed the double standard that women experience within many organizations: “When a man voices his opinion or stands up for himself, he appears to everyone as a leader and career-oriented, whereas a woman who wants to be heard is often seen as whiny, too demanding.”
To do our part to address these concerns, we have established an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) committee whose mission for this year is to raise awareness of the issues and educate members on the best ways to address them.
3. What are the gender stereotypes experienced within our company (or industry) and how can we address them?
As an organization, asking this kind of question allows us to really understand what’s happening in our company and identify the improvements that need to be made. It can also be scary at times (what if women don’t feel comfortable in our workplace?), but fear doesn’t allow us to move forward and make a difference. So, we dare! It’s always comforting to see that things we’ve been doing are making a difference to the women on our team:
“At Lü, it’s fun to feel like we have a ‘safe space’ to address our concerns and frustrations and to know that they will be heard and truly considered. With the salary grid in place, we know that no matter your gender, the salary, for equal skills, will be the same.”
While our company generally has good practices to support the roles of women, we still have some areas where we can improve. For example, “Sometimes we’re given tasks that show that stereotypes are still very much alive and well (example: ordering meals for the team, cleaning the room at the end of a meeting, etc.). I think they’re behaviors that are so ingrained in our society that there is really an education job to be done.” This is also true of certain comments that can reinforce the double standard between women and men.
How can we address these stereotypes? Talking about it, naming the things that bother us, and becoming aware of our biases are all ways to solve the problem. Whether we’re women or men, we can help eliminate these stereotypes within our company and our EDI committee will be there to support us.
We encourage you to have this type of discussion with your team; it’s a good bonding experience and lets you assess your current situation while identifying areas for improvement. Let’s face it, while we treat women in our society well, perfection does not exist and one of our values is to push our limits and surprise everyone (including ourselves) by exceeding expectations!
Our challenge to you: what role do women play within your organization?
