Study on non-legislative initiatives for companies to promote gender ...

Gender equality initiatives 99
To achieve sustainable results, many of these initiatives combine a range of measures
in various fields of intervention. In the following, the initiatives are described along 7
important fields of intervention, which are:
• recruitment;
• reconciliation;
• retention;
• career opportunities;
• training;
• networking (incl. mentoring);
• communication
As many of the initiatives are rather comprehensive, the attribution to one of these
fields has been done according to the main elements of the initiative, but there may
also be interdependencies, especially when the latter three fields are used as means
that may serve the first four fields. Nevertheless, the attribution is helpful as it facilitates
the exchange of experiences and the transfer of certain approaches or parts of
initiatives among companies.
3.2 Reasons for launching gender equality initiatives at company level
In the past decade, the issue of gender equality at the workplace has, along with the
raising importance in the public discussion gained importance among companies and
especially multinational companies explicitly address this topic. As employee data of
many companies reveal that there are gender biases throughout hierarchical levels or
job positions, companies have started to investigate the reasons for such biases and to
work on balancing their teams.
The companies analysed in the course of this research project have been asked about
their reasons for launching initiatives to promote gender equality within their enterprise.
There is consensus that such initiatives have to make economic sense, but there is a
range of motivations that act as drivers. To give an overview on why companies
engage in gender equality issues, some important external and internal drivers are
summarised in the following.
External drivers:
• political and legal framework in order to increase employment rate to ensure
financial viability of social model including pension schemes: Treaty on
European Union, Gender Equality Pact, EU Strategy for Growth & Employment
(Lisbon Strategy), national legislation & initiatives (rising need to react to
societal expectations)
• recognition that the working population is changing, ageing and becoming more
reliant on women - there is a need to respond to this by ensuring to attract and
retain the most talented persons (attract female talent as well to ensure a
competitive position)
o shortages in the workforce due to ageing society;