Special to the Philanthropy Journal
By Stanley Clark
Women’s History Month 2022 continues a yearly national celebration whose origins date back four decades ago to 1982 and the launch of Women’s History Week. Women’s History Month celebrates the achievements of women throughout the United States’ history in several fields.
Today, more women are engaging in male-dominated industries. For example, one-third of U.S. bettors are women, according to a new study on sports gambling.
Female entrepreneurs can also leverage digital marketing agencies that support female-run businesses.
Multiple channels can empower women across various fields in the global economy.
Creating Gender-Equal Opportunities in Industries and Workplaces
Today, numerous companies and organizations are dedicated to producing a more equitable workplace that includes equal opportunities for all employees regardless of Race or ethnicity, Gender, Sexual orientation, or Disability.
Such cultures celebrate differences and unleash individuals’ potential to replace bias with belongingness.
Equity remains a crucial element in the transition from social diversity to inclusion. Here are some facilitators to empower women world leaders through gender-equal channels.
Women’s Leadership Development Programs
Such programs aim to build a robust women leadership pipeline that helps managers achieve their desired roles.
Adding more women in leadership roles can improve organizations in terms of all genders. Potential benefits can include increased revenue, job satisfaction, and commitment.
Women’s leadership programs can help break barriers by creating a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I).
Leadership training programs for women can provide development and support to help individual women navigate challenges and prepare for more senior roles. Other goals of such programs may include:
- Building self-clarity
- Balancing self-promotion with authenticity
- Building a strategic network
- Aligning goals and intentions
- Creating a better work-life balance
Employee Resource Groups
A women’s employee resource group (WERG) is a voluntary, employee-led group that helps foster a diverse and inclusive workplace.
This objective is aligned with an organization’s mission, values, goals, and business practices.
The activities of WERGs often include:
- Increased diversity and fostered inclusion
- Professional development
- Amplification of the internal and external amplification of women
- Mentorship and sponsorship
- Recruitment, retention, and advancement of women
Mentorship Programs
Mentoring is a progressional activity that involves a trust relationship and meaningful commitment. Mentoring’s origins date back to ancient Greece, imparting crucial personal, spiritual, and social values to young men.
Today, women’s leadership mentorship can help create change through shared learning. This process can help reduce gender bias in the workplace and empower the next generation of female leaders.
Through such programs, young women can build personal capacity to help reduce gender bias in the workplace.
Mentorship allows emerging female leaders to leverage the knowledge and experience of established women leaders.
Mentorship programs can offer participants a wide range of options. Multiple formats include one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many. In addition, mentorship media include phone, email, and online video calls.
Gender Inclusion Programs
Gender inclusion programs and initiatives facilitate learning about potential gender bias. They can range in scope from small coaching sessions to gigantic webinars.
The objectives of gender inclusion programs may include:
- Creating a learning-focused environment
- Providing an enhanced learning experience
- Keeping participants accountable for learning
- Tailoring learning experience to individuals’ and groups’ specific needs
- Optimizing opportunities for individuals to interact and practice
- Helping participants achieve learning objectives
Gender awareness is crucial for gender-inclusive programs. Facilitators with experience in gender awareness may be more suited to addressing the issues the women participants may encounter.
They can also help foster the development of leadership, confidence, assertiveness, resilience, and self-advocacy.
Video Series
This media can share the life stories of women who have blazed a trail in their respective fields.
These videos can help inspire the next generation of women leaders considering education or career in particular fields.
Video and live streaming have skyrocketed in popularity in recent years, making video series a practical option promoting gender equality. Consider that YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine, following its parent company, Google.
In addition, a video series offers more convenience for viewers to consume content. They can view each video at their convenience, rather than watching a lengthier single video.
Board Members’ Initiatives
Such initiatives enable a company’s board members to interact with senior female leaders. Such initiatives allow the latter to share their perspectives and suggestions to enhance DE&I practices.
Board members can often help facilitate conflict resolution in situations involvinG DE&I issues.
The senior female leaders can function as mediators to help negotiate solutions that promote increased general equality in the workplace.
Virtual Inclusion Labs
These labs can help develop an inclusive culture, implement habits of inclusion, and promote the language of inclusion.
This process makes employees active and accountable in creating an inclusive community within the company.
Final Thoughts
The theme of this year’s Women’s Day (March 8) focused on women in leadership in a COVID-19 world. Women worldwide are working towards an equal future as nations recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The United Nations (UN) Gender Equality campaign calls for women’s rights for decision-making on issues like equal pay and health care services.
Various organizations, programs, and platforms are available to help achieve those goals, including leadership development programs, gender inclusion programs, and video series.
Women leaders can contribute their skills, knowledge, and networks to help meet the challenges of companies and nations.
The UN challenges the world to achieve “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.”
References
About the Author
Stanley Clark is a community development volunteer and writer. He had worked on several commercials, events, and campaigns before writing full-time in the area of natural health and wellness. He has a particular interest in reviewing CBD brands for their safety and legitimacy. Interested in breaking the taboo about cannabis, Stanley believes in CBD’s potential for helping people and communities with their health and wellness concerns.
