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

72 Gender equality initiatives
The Ombudsman for Equality emphasises that a simple and short plan is enough if it
provides concrete information about the targets and results of the company. As a
whole, the awarded company needs to have enhanced gender equality in a creditable
way. The most recent part of the Gender Equality Plan is the assessment of wages.
This involves the examination of pay systems used and the ways they are applied. The
assessment of wages is an issue which The Ombudsman for Equality pays special
attention to evaluate the Gender Equality Plans.
It is also the case in other countries, that initiatives are closely connected with a special
national law, although the nature of the prizes / awards is non-legislative.
Another example for such a prize is the Icelandic Jafnréttisviðurkenningar (Icelandic
Equality Award). Every company willing to participate in the competition has to fulfil
every law concerning gender equality, especially the recently approved (10/2008)
“Jafnréttisáætlun” (Equality Rights Plan). Once a year, the Icelandic Gender Equality
Council advertises the Gender Award. Enterprises, associations and institutes, as well
as individuals, can apply directly or be indirectly suggested by third parties. The prize
does not have a strict assessment protocol for measuring the most prominent efforts in
solving gender equality issues, as the Icelandic Gender Equality Prize was not
designed uniquely for enterprises. Therefore, there is no list of detailed criteria to attain,
but rather a set of rules to follow when assessing the applications.
The first committee session is formed by about twenty members, and has the task to go
through the first selection of the applications, following the above mentioned criteria.
Then, a smaller committee meets in the following sessions, often asking for more
information about the few applicants still in the competition. Afterwards, the committee
chooses the one that clearly excels above the others. The initiators do not pursue a
strict policy or very demanding criteria with a view to the participating companies, but
have a more tolerant policy aiming at attracting a maximum number of companies.
The main criteria for the prize are:
1) The company, association or institute rigorously applies the laws related to gender
equality in the workplace (individuals are exempted).
2) The committee prefers to award a company which achieves gender equality in all
positions, including management.
3) The committee gathers information about the firm from third parties, associations or
institutes in order to have a complete and impartial report on the applicant.
4) In the auditing process, the firm’s culture, working time, management culture and
services for families are taken into consideration.
In the frame of prizes with a focus on equal opportunities for women and men, there are
also some which have a more general approach, dealing additionally with the reconciliation
of family and work. One example is a Portuguese prize, which, although nonlegislative,
is also closely connected to a national law on gender equality (as it is the
case also in Finland and Iceland).