HR professionals: 3 actions to take towards gender equality hence better company performance

Gender equality has been one of the most debated topics for decades in the history of mankind. Being underrepresented in power and decision-making, women around the globe is still striving for equal pay for equal work, and they continue to be targets of physical and sexual abuse.

Nowadays, with more spotlight on the discriminative behaviors and unfair treatment to women, 
there are more and more voices from the population, and the significance of their roles in the economic development as well as important topics that concerns the entire human race has been 
readily increasing.

As a student at Medill, Northwestern, and with a strong interest in Human Resources Management (or People Operations as defined by Google), I have found two articles on the issue of gender 
equality you might find interesting.

The first article is The Economic Cost of Devaluing “Women’s work” by Kristalina Georgieva. In 
the article, Kristalina talked about the unpaid work women are constantly doing, a large portion of 
that being work around the household, and the opportunity costs of it. In the article, Kristalina 
suggested helping the overworked and underpaid with policies besides stating the significance of valuing women's work.

The second article is ESG: Invest in companies standing up for women in the workforce by Lyxor ETF. In the article, gender equality is discussed from the investor's point of view, in an objective and data-based manner. Women in OECD countries are listed as an example as they are well-educated, however, underrepresented and undervalued.

Based on the articles as well as my learnings from Medill, Northwestern, I have three recommendations for you as a woman at work myself.

Action Recommendations:

• GENDER DIVERSITY RULES- As shown in one study by McKinsey, gender-diverse companies are 21% more likely to outperform their peers on EBIT margin, a measure of profitability.
• STRIVE TO TRANSPARENCY- Keeping an open dialogue is the best approach to eliminate workplace discrimination and motivate all. 
• BALANCE THE SCALE- Not only is overall gender balance important, pay attention to the leadership team as well as your workforce. 

The next time you think about hiring, promoting, or firing an extraordinary lady, and how she represents an irreplaceable group of top-minds in your industry, recall the three recommendations to better structure your thinking.

My name is Monica, and I am an IMC student at Medill, Northwestern. I am proud to be a woman in work. I am starting a career with the purpose of becoming an accountable HR professional who stands for gender and race equality.

Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or advice at wenfangshi2019@Northwestern.edu.

Or you can reach me via LinkedIn or Twitter.