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

Gender equality initiatives 137
What are the
main
advantages of
the specific type
of initiative?
What are the
main
disadvantages
of the specific
type of
initiative?
When is the
measure most
appropriate?
Label Prize/award Charter Ranking/Index
Clear requirements
(standards)
External evaluation
whether requirements
are met
Aims at organisational
change and implies
further development
Equality plans are
implemented
Requires initiative of
enterprises
Consultancy entails
often costs
Rather time consuming
For enterprises willing to
sustainably implement
gender equality
throughout the whole
organisation
Very good instrument for
public relations
Recognition for already
implemented measures
Very popular tool to
promote gender equality
in the media
Analysis of a given
moment in time
Processes are not
assessed, only former
developments and plans
for the future
Only limited number of
winners
It is a good “starter drug”
as the enterprise does not
risk anything when
participating
As an add-on to recognize
efforts of enterprises
active in other types of
initiatives
ideally based on selfinitiative
and strong
commitment of the
enterprise
signing a charter as a
missionary act to motivate
other enterprises to follow
instrument to support societal
developments which
seem to be favourable to
the enterprise
as the charter relies more
on self-commitment than
on external assessment
there is the danger of
using it as a mere lip
service
probably reflects public
goals to a lesser extent, as
often based on the
companies’ initiatives only
For self-initiative enterprises
which want to
support societal
developments
For enterprises which
want to promote their
activities (hybrid between
non-legislative initiative
and initiative individually
taken by companies)
Most neutral instrument
based mainly on
quantitative data
Shows also bad
practices (the worst
ranked enterprises)
often based only on
externally available and
quantitative data
Lack of information on
processes and
developments
Does not directly
support any selfinitiative
of enterprises
As additional tool to
illustrate the level of
gender equality among
a certain type of
enterprises
As monitoring
instrument
Compendium of
good practice
Low-threshold
initiative, as rather
based on a
description than on
a formalised
assessment
Only as additional
measure
No “critical”
assessment
Supporting
measure
To illustrate the
practice of gender
equality measures
1
Here only benefits are mentioned which are especially true for the specific type of initiative in comparison to the other types. For more information
concerning the benefits in general see chapter 4.3
Source: Austrian Institute for SME Research