How We Can Encourage More Women To Be In The Workforce
From the last 3 decades, women all over the world are exceeding men at college degrees. Albeit that, the representation of women at workplaces still has a huge gap.
Although most companies are trying to make their workplaces' environment gender diverse, women are still lagging behind men due to historical gender bias and inequality. The female employment rate in India tanked to 26% in 2018 and their labour force participation rate still continues to decline.
Having more women in the workforce can boost the worldwide economy by 35%, as suggested by the IMF chief Christine Lagarde. It is high time that we abolish discrimination as well as gender bias towards women and encourage their participation in the workforce. This can bring great economic as well as a positive social change in our country.
Here are the 3 ways how we can (and we must!) encourage more women to be in the workforce and bridge the gender gap.
How We Can Encourage More Women To Be In The Workforce
1. Provide Equal Opportunities To Them
The brunt of biases at workplaces keeps women from showing their full potential and skills since they don't get enough opportunities. Women can only feel respected and "accepted" at workplaces if they are given equal opportunities as men.
YouGov, a public opinion and data company based out of the UK, did a research about why women are less likely to be given opportunities/rewards in the workplace than men. The results showed that only 44% of women at workplaces are given the opportunity of taking the lead on a project, in contrary to 59% of men who get the chance.
In order to put an end to this inequality, companies should make the working conditions favourable for women in comparison to men. Qualified, experienced and deserving women should be treated the same as men while getting picked for new projects or any opportunity of that sort.
2. Let Them Lead
As a report by The Guardian suggests, giving leadership to women can encourage other women to step up in the workplace. Most women like to have a woman as an authoritative figure at their workplace who can understand and solve the work-related issues faced by them better. It doesn't only instill confidence in existing women employees, but also gets more women on board in the workplace.
Furthermore, giving leadership to women is also a beneficial point for a company as women are proven to make better leaders than men.
Also Read: What It Takes For A Woman To Succeed In The Workplace
3. Offer Them Flexible Arrangements
A lot of women, especially those with kids, are forced to quit their job or not join one at all due to certain workplaces not having flexible arrangements for them.
Building a work culture that has flexibility is not about giving a "perk" to your employees. It has become a necessity in the 21st century - a necessity that can shape the future of your company.
According to this entrepreneur.com article piece by the VP of bayt.com, giving flexibility as well as comfort to your employees and having a friendly culture at work can help your company to hire and retain talented individuals who can take your company to the next step. Women, in general, require flexible working hours more than men do as they usually have a lot of family responsibilities to take care of.
So if you are a start-up or a company that wants to be employee-friendly, you should ditch the traditional working arrangements and give flexible conditions to your employees which are surprisingly more productive for your company!