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

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134 Gender equality initiatives An important criterion when assessing a measure is its sustainable and long-term effect with a view to realising gender equality principles in the participating companies. In our context, the question is whether a certain type of non-legislative initiative promotes gender equality in a more sustainable way than others do. Labels and charters seem to emphasise the enterprise’s future management practice and reflect an organisational change towards the promotion of gender equality. Moreover, the signing of a charter aims not only at proclaiming the enterprise’s principles but also at motivating others to follow. In the case of a label, the limited time period of granting the label and the requirements of a re-labelling - which entail a further improvement of the gender equality - fosters sustainable change. A prize and rankings basically assess the status quo of an enterprise’s gender equality performance. Nevertheless, within the awarding process the existence of a sustainable gender equality policy (e. g. the existence of gender equality plans) may still constitute an important assessment criterion. And worst ranked enterprises could be driven to change their practices to avoid repeated negative publicity. Each type of initiative has its advantages and disadvantages and can be seen as an appropriate measure for different situations. Labels can initiate a sustainable organisational change and continuous improvement of the enterprise’s gender equality policy. The assessment process includes clear requirements and an external evaluation. Based on the analysis of the status quo development plans are formulated with the help of external consultants. Thus, sustainable organisational change is fostered. In contrast, such external consultancy often entails costs and could be rather time consuming. As the labelling is constituted as a process such an initiative seems to be appropriate for enterprises willing to change its organisational structure and implement a sustainable gender equality policy throughout the whole organisation. Prizes or awards have the advantage of a wide media echo, for the enterprises as well as for the promotion of gender equality in general. As it is based on the analysis of the status quo it is an instrument to recognize the efforts an enterprise has already made rather than initiating further developments. Thus, it seems to be an appropriate additional instrument to highlight those enterprises which are active in other initiatives (e. g. prize for labelled enterprises), too. Furthermore, prizes seem to be a good “starter drug” for enterprises that have started to implement gender equality measures but have not yet publicised their efforts or undergone an external evaluation. The enterprise does not risk much when participating. The signing of a charter can be interpreted as a missionary act. It represents a strong commitment of the enterprise to act in line with the charter’s principles which become part of the mission statement and include implicitly the wish to motivate others to follow. It is an ideal instrument for enterprises which have already started to support gender equality and want to promote their activities. As it requires much self-initiative and includes the commitment that enterprises implement the charter’s principles in concrete measures tailored to the specific situation it can be seen as a hybrid between nonlegislative initiatives and initiatives individually taken by companies. This stress to selfinitiative entails the danger that the charter is seen as a public relations measure to position the enterprise as a socially responsible one without concrete measure to follow. Rankings have the advantage that they are ideally based on “hard facts” and quantitative data which is assessed by external experts. This guarantees neutrality but
Gender equality initiatives 135 processes and developments are not taken into account. Moreover it highlights also bad practices which can lead to public pressure and motivates the worst ranked enterprises to review their HR policy with a view to gender equality aspects. Rankings can serve as an additional tool to illustrate the level of gender equality among a certain type of enterprises and as a monitoring instrument. They do not provide support to the enterprises’ activities. Finally, a compendium of good practice can be seen as an additional tool to illustrate the practice of gender equality measures. As it is normally not based on a ”critical” assessment it is a descriptive way of showing possible ways of promoting gender equality at the workplace without initiating further processes in the involved companies. Nevertheless, it can motivate other enterprises to design and implement measures to promote gender equality. The following table shows the differences and common denominators along several assessment criteria in a more structured and detailed form.
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