The Female Quotient Shares Roadmap for Putting Gender Equality Front and Center

As part of the Adweek Sustainability Playbook, executives of The Female Quotient Ronda Carnegie and Shelley Zalis shine a light on gender equality and discuss what it takes to create an equitable future, considering measurement tools and conscious leadership. THE CHALLENGE Gender equality encompasses many different elements, including education, economic empowerment, women's rights, health-care issues, and sexual violence. Although historically, gender equality has been discussed and admired for so long, we have not been activating solutions for change and measuring accountability. Covid-19 not only exposed how unsustainable and fragile our economies and democracies are, but how inequitable our societies are as well. Since the pandemic, women have disproportionately lost their jobs compared to men, resulting in an issue now coined as “she-cession.” The World Economic Forum, which measures gender equality in 144 countries, has shared that closing the global gender gap has increased from 99.5 years to 135.6 years. Similarly, the closing of the economic gender pay gap has increased from 257 years to now 267.6 years. We've been set back so much further than we already were. When you look at the jobs that have faced salary reduction or been eliminated, or furloughed, they are all predominantly entry-level positions, which women typically hold. It’s worth noting that equal payday for women does not equal payday for all women. Women of color face a disproportionate pay gap. Generally, women make 82 cents on the dollar. Meanwhile, Black women make 64 cents on the dollar and Latinas 53 cents on the dollar. We’ve achieved equality when we all achieve equal pay with white men. But how do we bring more women to have a seat at the table? THE APPROACH Because the path we were going on wasn’t working, this is our time to make conscious choices to equitize. This year in collaboration with UN Women, we are launching a feminist plan. It’s a visionary but practical roadmap for putting gender equality, social justice, and sustainability at the center of the recovery. As leaders, we need to develop policies and benefits that create an equitable future, but with equity at its heart. Since the pandemic, we’ve heard a lot of conversations around work flexibility. You can’t just make flexible schedules elective. It needs to be part of the plan, like the conscious leader and CEO of Citigroup, Jane Frazier, is doing. She is creating a hybrid concept where everyone will potentially have three days at home and two days at the office. It keeps the social interaction while embracing flexibility. In addition, we are also making sure we provide equal opportunity to women worldwide, including in marginalized countries, by providing internet access. We are finding physical spaces where women can access the internet, allowing us to offer educational opportunities in an accessible and scalable way. It also provides them with more opportunities for economic empowerment, which goes a long way to finding their voice, confidence, and community. Lastly, we developed the free Advancing Equality Calculator™ to increase accountability around the wage gap. You can't treasure what you can't measure. Therefore, this tool allows a company or department to understand where they are regarding the gender pay gap and where they would like to go. You can input a couple of different numbers and see where you are and how long it will take you to close the gap. The calculator is also great for small businesses, as not everyone is an enterprise but wants to participate in this conversation. We want to be as inclusive as possible for small, medium, and large businesses. THE IMPACT We are seeing a conscious shift towards Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG). In 2020, ESG searches were up 217%. Corporations are making ESG a priority and part of their brand identity, attracting and retaining the best talent. We’ve also talked about how diversity is great for business. When we have more women in decision-making, power positions, it changes the focus. When we close the gap, we could add 28 trillion to the global GDP by 2025. When we close the gap in the U.S., we could add $4.3 trillion to the U.S. GDP by 2025. How great would it be as the CEO of a Fortune 500 company to know my contribution to that big total? Let's work together to create a more equitable workplace, because the more equitable the workforce is, the more we bring our best selves to the table. It creates a culture of safety, security, and respect, leading to a culture of belonging, and making business better all-around for everybody. The world is quite big. But when we are all connected and all sharing, it's actually cozy, comfortable, and not that big. Therefore, when we go together, we go further and faster. KEY TAKEAWAYS We can all hide behind excuses, pledges, and petitions. But you can't fix what you are not willing to measure and identify. Gender equality is not a female issue. It's a social, economic, and leadership issue. Whether you're a man, a woman, or non-binary, this is all of our responsibilities, and we all need to hold ourselves accountable.You need to educate yourself, understand and get to the core of the conversation. It starts with awareness and education and then action.Representation equals reflection, and reflection creates the impact we all want to see. How the NHL is Leveraging the Power of Sports to Drive Environmental Change