Yesterday, women across the nation participated in A Day Without a Woman. Women went on strike, rallied, and engaged in various forms of protest to demonstrate solidarity. While the day has come and gone, there are specific actions leaders and organizations can take to continue to affirm their commitment to gender equity. Below are just a few action Items you can take to Lead Inclusively after A Day Without a Woman:
- Re-Affirm your commitment to gender equity within and beyond the walls of your organization via an employee-wide communication.
- Leverage your Women’s employee resource group to create learning experiences that explore gender bias and inequity in the workplace and society-at-large, and invite employees to participate.
- Conduct a cultural audit to gauge organizational climate by gender and other dimensions of diversity
- Engage in a pay equity analyses to ensure disparities in compensation are not present.
- Connect with your local women’s chamber of commerce, and foster relationships with women, minority-owned suppliers.
- Support (financially and through volunteering) community organizations that serve women. Offer these opportunities to employees.
- Consider developing a policy that grants employees leave to engage in civic and service activities.
- Be intersectional. Women are not a monolith. Organizational and societal inequities usually impact women of color, LGBT women, women with disabilities, and migrant women even more. Consider this when identifying solutions intended to foster gender equity.
- Commit to Live Inclusively
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
–Audre Lorde
