Enhancing the Value of Women in the Workplace

Over the last two years we have witnessed a global focus on women, especially in a professional sense. After the ‘Me Too’ movement took hold significantly in 2017. The emphasis on supporting women to feel empowered and speak out about the inequality and sexism they have experienced has created a greatly enhanced understanding of our self-value.

This can be seen not only in our professional skills and experience, but also from a personal perspective, in terms of our nurturing and EQ (emotional intelligence) skills for building strong relationships.

The 100-year anniversary of the suffragette movement and certain women gaining the right to vote has given further prominence to how far we have come – and we are moving in the right direction.

However, if you Google ‘Female CEOs’ the results are far from inspiring. There are reports that female board membership and the number of female CEO’s is stagnating, that we are most likely to be the first CEO’s fired; and there’s still that inevitable glass ceiling on how much we are paid vs our male counterparts in the same roles.

So, what do we need to do to keep moving away from the stereotypes and make a significant change in the way we are viewed in the workplace?

While it’s clear that momentum is building and shining its spotlight on the inequality we're fighting, it's still paramount that we nurture the energy, drive and enthusiasm to stay focused on that goal.

Our strength lies in continuing to support and showcase our solidarity like those suffragettes did 100 years ago. By understanding where the challenges are, we can focus on highlighting what else needs to be done. This will then help to improve the value of our contribution and involvement in the progression of business and world issues.

This is not a them vs us battleground we're fighting and it’s not necessarily about feminism either – the issues are much wider when it comes to equality. What it's about is humanity, and respecting the contribution we all have to offer regardless of gender, race, religion or anything else that is used to stereotype, demoralise or demean each other.

I sense that as we progress towards 2020, the drive towards equality will be led not only by us as women, but also wholeheartedly supported by men who don’t feel threatened by, or insecure about our presence in the workplace.

We will continue to see the development of women’s organisations and groups, as well as female business owners empowering each other to progress within our professions, creating programmes designed to give us the confidence to step-up and be counted for the contribution we are making.

More than that, there'll be the understanding and recognition that we're here to perform our roles to the highest degree possible and to enhance our lives and the world we live in, alongside our male peers.