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

122 Gender equality initiatives
family and the female role in society. Moreover, social services were cut due to
the limitation of state subsidies in this field. Thus, the discussion on gender
issues has only recently emerged and the awareness of gender inequalities in
the labour market is still to be risen. Initiatives to foster gender equality put
much emphasis on the reconciliation theme in these countries (see above).
• Support for broad legislation: In a way, the Scandinavian countries represent
the opposite case. There, the discussion on gender equality has a long tradition
and the importance of tackling gender inequalities in the labour market is
political mainstreaming which led to extensive legislation in the field. Measures
which are of a voluntary nature in many other countries are actually compulsory
e.g. in Finland or Iceland. Nevertheless, in some fields the practical implementation
of gender equality law needs to be improved. Thus, there exist nonlegislative
initiatives aiming at highlighting enterprises which can serve as role
models in implementing the law.
Since the initiatives have different thematic foci, they can also be distinguished along
their target group. The target groups can be understood, on the one hand, with a view
to the groups of employees addressed and, on the other hand, with a view to groups of
enterprises. Initiatives may address the following employee groups:
• All employees: Some of the initiatives avoid a special focus and, in principle,
intend to address all employees, thus men and women. This is often the case
for initiatives which have a broad scope and foster measures with a view to
diversity or CSR in general, even though in the framework of such broader
initiatives special emphasis in put on women.
• All women: The initiatives with a general focus on gender equality and covering
various intervention fields normally address all women within the workforce of
the participating enterprises.
• Employees with family duties: Initiatives which aim at a better reconciliation of
work and private life target at employees with family duties. Although in practice
mostly women are addressed by such measures, it is crucial that all employees
with family duties are taken into account to not enforce the traditional roles.
Some initiatives even emphasise the importance of supporting and motivating
fathers to take over daily responsibility for their children as this is seen as a
precondition for reaching gender equality in the labour market. For example,
within the “Frauen- und familienfreundlichster Betrieb” (women and familyfriendliest
business) competition in Austria, in the regional pre-selection in Styria
a special prize is awarded to enterprises which are extraordinarily engaged in
paternal participation.
• Women with specific characteristics: Initiatives tackling the horizontal or
vertical segregation in the labour market aim at reaching specific subgroups of
women. Concerning the horizontal segregation women already active in maledominated
sectors or aiming at these sectors (e.g. female students in technicaloriented
subjects) are targeted at. With a view to the vertical segregation
women in management positions or women having the ambition or the ability to
advance into a managerial job are addressed. In both cases, initiatives do not
limit their target group to women who have already entered male-dominated
jobs but do also consider potential candidates.