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

Gender equality initiatives 123
Initiatives also address different groups of enterprises:
• All employers: Initiatives with a broad scope mostly address all types of
employers including companies, public organisations and NGOs. As these
organisations act under different framework conditions they are not directly
comparable, so often different subgroups are created. Mainly prizes are
awarded in different categories (in some cases the names of the prizes even
differ), e.g. separately for public organisations and enterprises, private enterprises
and NGO or third sector organisations such as social enterprises. Among
private enterprises there is often an additional distinction with regard to firm size
(see below). Moreover, the inclusion of all types of employers is often a way to
foster networking and co-operation among the key players on the labour market.
• Private enterprises: As public organisations are often subject to a more
stringent legislation as regards quotas, equality requirements etc. many initiatives
concentrate their efforts on the private sector and target at private
employers where gender equality initiatives are more often the result of
voluntary actions than of legal requirements. These private enterprises are often
divided into subgroups following size criteria. This makes possible adapting the
requirements for participation as e.g. SMEs will not be able to present a gender
equality plan covering as much areas as a large enterprise. Some initiatives
also limit their target group to enterprises of a specific minimum size. This is the
case for initiatives which focus e.g. on the vertical segregation which are mainly
relevant for larger enterprises.
• Enterprises active in specific sectors: Initiatives targeting at the horizontal
segregation often focus their activities on enterprises active in male-dominated
sectors, such as technical- and technological-oriented industries or enterprises
active in research activities.
The different aims and target groups cannot easily be associated to a specific type of
initiative. Nevertheless, slight differences between the types of initiatives can be
identified in terms of the target groups and other characteristics such as the application
process, the assessment criteria and procedure as well as the degree of commitment a
participating enterprise is bound to.
Thus, rankings mainly assess large enterprises and also charters are more likely to be
signed by large organisations. As far as charters are concerned, beside the private
sector many public authorities and NGOs tend to join. On the contrary, labels and
prizes more often address all types of enterprises. To guarantee a fair competition
and to motivate SMEs and public or third sector organisations to participate, different
prizes in different categories are awarded and the requirements (and/or fees) for
smaller enterprises are reduced.
Concerning the application process, enterprises apply for participating in a label or an
award, whereas in the case of charters enterprises are often already involved in
formulating and launching the charter or even initiate it. A ranking based on an external
evaluation knows no application or just a registration of the enterprise. For the inclusion
in a compendium of good practice enterprises are asked to provide information.