Valérie Tanghe Présidente d’Amazone Chef Infrastructure Services chez NRB Voorzitster van Amazone Hoofd Infrastructure Services bij NRB

The economic benefits of gender equality at work

Qualitative aspects from a technological and scientific

perspective

Valérie Tanghe Burgerlijk ingenieur - KUL - 1995 20 years in Telecom and ICT Head of Infrastructure Services NRB 20 years “Denktank Vrouw en Ingenieur” Board member engineers KVIV vzw (now ie-net) Research project ESF ‘Vrouwelijk Ingenieur’ Project Flemish Gov. ‘De wereld aan je voeten’ President board of Amazone vzw

Ingenieur M/V

Documentation Centre on

Gender Policy

Congres center & Restaurant

Housing the women

associations

The Volvo Your-Concept-Car case

Your Concept Car : Designed by women for women….

• Marti Barletta - American expert on female consumer patterns says: "If you meet the expectations of women, you exceed the expectations of men” – 2001

• Volvo set up an all-women team in 2002: • 5 women at Volvo Cars with broad-spectrum experience in various

automotive fields • 3 Chief female designers

• Mission: develop a concept car capable of winning the

approval of that most demanding Volvo customer category of all - the independent female professional

• Car proposed at Geneva Motor Show in 2004

The nine women behind the YCC: Maria Widell Christiansen (Project Manager Design), Eva-Lisa Andersson (Project manager YCC), Elna Holmberg, Maria Uggla (Responsible Colour & Trim), Camilla Palmertz, Cynthia Charwick (Responsible Interior design), Anna Rosen (Responsible Exterior design), Lena Ekelund, Tatiana Butovitsch Temm

Female professional women have highest demands for cars in the premium segment…. • They want everything that men want in terms

of performance, prestige and style. BUT THEY WANT MORE:

• Smart storage: handbag, keys, phones, gym bag, ….

• Easy to get in and out of • Good visibility • More choice and flexibility (Hi –Lo, Car interior) • Minimal maintenance (exterior screenwasher fill,

easy clean-paint) • Run-flat tyres • Easy to park • Engine and transmission (power off of engine in

stand-still) • Automatic gear shift and six speed gearbox

Learnings from the Volvo Concept Car case

• The starting point was marketing and customer differentiation • In marketing and advertising it is allowed to target specific customer groups and apply specific

methods to attract those customer groups

Why not do this more in for example HR matters: ?

• Discussion was gigantic:

• (Male) press stated that the women had been sexistic themselves, enlarging stereotypical images about woman:

• Women can’t park a car • Women only think of their handbag • Etc etc

• The car itself never went into production….

BUT ….. Most ideas have become mainstream 10 years later !

Other qualitative references on the economic benefits of gender equality in companies

• Annual reports on gender topics (2007+) • Significant correlation between better

company financial results and at least 3 women at the top of the company (board and top management team) BUT: what is cause, what is consequence???

• Women get better evaluations for their leadership competences ‘the’ ideal leadership model is (more) feminine

• http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/women-matter

• All reports on C-level

“Woman matters” Mc Kinsey

With all of this interesting good news…. Why isn’t gender balance coming naturally in our companies??? Answers from science

2 complementary scientific areas that study differences M/F Sociology:

• empirical (observations) and • statistical

(Evolution) psychology: • explanatory

Key Learnings from evolution psychology (version 200 years after Darwin) Explanation difference man/woman as in other species: “The degree of difference in assertiveness between sexes is inversely proportional to the quantity of parental care that each sexe is contributing” (including pregnancy time as well as educational time) “Natural unconscious bias”: Different automatic expectations from both men and women towards men and women

BUT: Natural <-> Desirable Human kind can decide and agree for a desirable different outcome: ‘Equality’

Key Learnings from evolution psychology (version 200 years after Darwin) Explanation difference man/woman as in other species: “The degree of difference in assertiveness between sexes is inversely proportional to the quantity of parental care that each sexe is contributing” (including pregnancy time as well as educational time) “Natural unconscious bias”: Different automatic expectations from both men and women towards men and women

BUT: Natural <-> Desirable Human kind can decide and agree for a desirable different outcome: ‘Equality’

The leadership Paradox

The Leadership paradox gives more advantages to men

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic in Harvard Business Review: Competences needed to become a leader (assertiveness, speaking up, pushing forward) <--> Competences to be a good leader…. (listening, moderating, giving room) https://hbr.org/2013/08/why-do-so-many-incompetent-men/#!

So, what to do?? Solutions to this problem

Gendermainstreaming : looking at gender equality in a holistic way

Gendermainstreaming is: • een preventieve strategie die de implicaties nagaat voor

mannen en vrouwen van geplande beleidsacties • doel? diepgaande structurele gendergelijkheid in de

samenleving te realiseren • door zich niet te beperken tot specifieke maatregelen

om vrouwen te helpen maar door de genderdimensie standaard te integreren in alle overheidsdomeinen (bv. gezondheid, werk, justitie, personeelsbeleid overheid…)

• waar? op alle overheidsniveau’s (nationaal, regionaal, provinciaal, stedelijk,…)

• op een systematische manier: in alle fasen van een beleidsmaatregel, wet of -programma : voorbereiding, besluitvorming, implementatie, monitoring, toepassing, evaluatie. Dit alles gebaseerd op onderzoek (een vergelijkende genderanalyse van de situatie van vrouwen en mannen en eventuele ongelijkheden tussen mannen en vrouwen in kaart brengen)

List of possible actions within companies: observed success-stories

• Bottom-up from female workers and individual female managers: • Oriented to support the career possibilities of women • Networking activities (with senior managers) • Beter lasting result if a budget is allocated: if not, the activities are too much

based on volunteers or without commitment. A clear mandate is required • Has to be supported by HR, diversity managers, communication, infrastructure,

etc.

• Top-down from the company top: • Numbers and reporting, Audits, KPI’s • Build in practice of gendermainstreaming: have a cross check in everything

what is decided to check if there is an impact of the decision on women versus men

• Permanent awareness creation • Have a policy to choose for women in case of equal valuation

Key Conclusions

Key Conclusions

• Gender equality has clear economic benefits cfr Mc Kinsey, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox “Why women mean business” • Gender equality does not come by itself: Natural bias versus what is desirable

• Gendermainstreaming is a solution to unlock this great

competitive advantage • Permanent vigilance is needed for success