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

90 Gender equality initiatives
The Times in the UK launched the “Where Women Want to Work TOP 50”, an
alphabetically ordered list of the largest (more than 1000 employees) and most
progressive employers in terms of gender equality and work/life balance. The assessment
is based on an online entry the interested organisations have to submit. Five
sections including the organisation’s biggest external and internal achievements, the
next big gender challenge and the proposed strategy, five female case studies and the
organisation’s competitive gender-related unique selling point have to be described.
Based on the US experience and initiative “Working Mother 100 Best Companies” one
of Sweden’s biggest business magazines has recently started “Bästa arbetsplatsen
för kvinnor” (best workplace for women). To participate, companies themselves sign
up at the website of the magazine Veckans Affärers, where they fill in a comprehensive
web-survey examining gender policies, how benefits are divided between men and
women, attitudes on parental leave, the inclusion of females networking, various
indicators on the climate in the company and how much human and financial resources
are put into gender equality work. A project team from the magazine then analyses the
competitors according to the assessment criteria company profile, workforce profile,
child care facilities, work arrangements, family friendly programs etc. and makes a list
of the 100 best workplaces for women in the country, where the top ten companies
receive a prize, and all listed companies get far reaching publicity. In order to be
considered on the list the companies need to have a minimum of two women on the
board of directors and have at least 200 employees. Having started in 2009, it is the
aim to gain all companies listed on the stock-exchange as participants within three
years. This seems realisable as the project in the US has attracted so many companies
that there now exist different lists such as the “50 Best Law Firms for Women” or the
“Best Companies for Multicultural Women” etc.
The German “genderdax – Top Unternehmen for hochqualifizierte Frauen” (Genderdax
– top companies for high qualified women) lists companies that support the
employment of women especially in management positions. The companies can
apply for being listed in the genderdax through a standardized application form and
must be active in offering flexible working conditions, measures for a good work/lifebalance,
special consideration of highly qualified women in the recruitment process and
human resource development for career-oriented women. Although the index
distinguishes three categories with respect to company size most of the listed
enterprises are large. In the framework of the Community Initiative EQUAL the “Gender
index – Firma Rownych Szans” (Gender Index – equal opportunities firm) was
implemented in Poland. The companies willing to participate were assessed in seven
areas of human resource management (recruitment, access to promotion, protection
against redundancy, access to training, remuneration, reconciliation of work and family
life, protection against sexual harassment and mobbing). The first ten companies were
entitled to use the label “Equal Opportunities Firm”.
The “Jämställdhetsindex Jämix®” (Equal opportunity index) in Sweden analyses
participating companies with at least 50 employees according to nine criteria. The
companies finally receive an annual report with 20 to 40 indicators including comparison
between the participating organisations and the development of the indicators
over time. A tool for self-assessment can also be found in the Netherlands. “Glazen
Plafond Index” (glass ceiling index) offers a checklist available via internet. Companies
fill in the online-questionnaire and receive their “score” in gender issues. An online selfevaluation
tool with special focus on family-friendliness is offered in Germany. The
“berufundfamilie-Index” (work and family index) is calculated on the basis of the
responses to questions in three major areas (dialogue between management and