While there has been progress for gender equality in our society and in the workplace over the years, there are still biases and stereotypes that need hinder this progression. We are all responsible for breaking that bias.
In order for a bias to be broken, it needs to be addressed as early as possible and in all environments, from school years, universities and setting the culture right in the workplace. Further, this bias should be addressed on all levels. In an organization, it should start in the hiring process, showcasing the values and company culture and continued through the employees’ journey within an organization to ensure that all employees feel that they are being treated fairly and without any prejudice or bias.
Gender biases have been ingrained since a young age and are indeed influencing our way of working. Leaders therefore need to take steps to change this.
8 Tips - How to Change Gender Equality Bias

💰 Wage Equality

⚖️ Understanding Bias

🥰 Introduce an Inclusion Index
Assess your employees’ sense of belongingness, psychological state and so on. Ways of assessing this could consist of a set of questions where the employees rank how they feel from 1-10.
The right questions are at heart and need to be well thought out. The questions could look like the following and should be asked on an annual basis:
- To what extent do you feel like your opinion is valued and respected?
- To what extent do you feel like you can express your feelings openly amongst your colleagues without any unfair judgment?
This would allow for managers to be aware of the well being of their employees and to take actions to help if necessary.

🏋🏽 Train your Hiring Managers
Train your Hiring Managers. Offer a guide for interviewing without bias including open questions and some brain teasers – play with it and test whether the candidate thinks in a biased way or not. Here is a good example of testing your candidate’s mind for unconscious bias:
A father and son are in a horrible car crash that kills the dad. The son is rushed to the hospital; just as he’s about to go under the knife, the surgeon says, “I can’t operate—that boy is my son!” Explain – who is the surgeon?
Answer: The mother is the surgeon
The majority of our brains are inclined to always picture a man in the role of a surgeon and while the answer makes sense when it is told, our unconscious bias might initially point us towards a male character.

📚 Employee Handbooks

🙏🏽 External Resources

☁️ Anonymous Brainstorming

💪🏽 Promote Empowerment
Proactively promote empowerment. Create a resource group for employees in your organization where these are encouraged to open up about their stories; encourage inspiration rather than judgment. This could be in the format of a workshop, chat group, panel discussion etc.
Empowerment is key here. Another way to promote empowerment within your company could be through leadership programmes. This could incentivize more employees, regardless of their gender, race, etc… to believe in themselves and to always reach for higher. A company needs an empire of leaders; one therefore needs to create a working culture that allows for that to happen