Four ways companies can create greater gender equity

To remove the obstacles to women’s representation, inclusion and advancement, employers need to take a data-driven approach. This starts with measuring the gender proportionality of hires, performance ratings, promotions, key talent populations and leavers, and then using predictive analytics to understand which measures will have the biggest impact in addressing any potential gaps. In addition to gathering and analysing this workforce data, employers can also proactively deploy surveys and other listening tools to identify and assess the biggest issues, the most pressing unmet needs, and the areas offering greatest potential improvements for employees. To sharpen the insights, the data can be segmented by geographical location, business unit or function, and other intersectional areas of identity such as ethnicity or disability (where legally possible based on jurisdiction). All of the assessments can be conducted regularly over time, to establish a baseline for comparison, track progress towards goals, establish critical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and explore mechanisms for an appropriate accountability infrastructure.  

For all employers, harnessing the power of data is an important step towards understanding where they want to focus and where they can have the greatest impact. As we’ve already noted, our survey findings this year show that women are significantly less likely than men to be focused on building their own career, while last year's study found employer support in this area lacking for women. Only 35% of women globally (compared with 44% of men) had a clear plan to advance their career with their current employer. Companies seeking to close this gap should combine a strong focus on career development with a real-time understanding of who is being promoted or identified as key talent. This is just one of the ways in which employers can blend data, process and real-time interventions to drive progress on gender diversity.

Without the right levels of leadership commitment, and – even more importantly – the appropriate accountability infrastructure, it will prove very challenging to move the needle on gender diversity in a sustainable way. Having leadership commitment to, and accountability for, Inclusion and Diversity is critical to achieving progress.

A consistent top-line finding that shines through in our research is that inclusion at work is empowering and beneficial for all employees, but critically so for women. A workplace where women feel that they belong, are included in decision-making, and are treated fairly is a workplace where women can thrive. 

The world is continuing to shift rapidly and the impact of technological disruption, shifting demographics and polarisation, along with other global business megatrends are affecting how people work every single day. Collectively, these forces mean that workers are now contending with higher levels of difference than ever before. Be that working with greater levels of demographic diversity, the blend of different work patterns, new or expanding markets and geographies, and on teams with a wider set of skills. Building the human skills and culture that will enable workers to thrive while leading, managing or working through this era of increasing difference is critical. And upskilling strategies must extend beyond digital, to include the human skills that leaders need for a shifting world.

The right training can help leaders learn and understand the ways in which unconscious biases can distort their decision-making about people and business issues, particularly stemming from gender stereotypes and entrenched perceptions that often hold women back. Beyond understanding and addressing potential biases, inclusive leadership also requires the capacity to show empathy, appreciation, and respect for every individual’s unique lived experience, while fostering an environment of psychological safety in which everyone feels empowered to speak up. Qualities such as these equip people to harness the power of diversity, practise allyship, and bring out the best in diverse teams to deliver innovation and impact. 

Last year’s #EmpoweringWomen research highlighted that only 30% of workers said their employers provide them with support and resources to improve diversity and inclusion within their teams or help them work effectively with people who have different views. To support inclusion and belonging while advancing gender equity, employers need to recognise the importance of inclusive leadership – and foster it across their workforce.

This research highlights that women are experiencing statistically significant lower levels of workplace inclusion than men, and that women in non-management positions have the lowest Inclusion Index scores. It can be very tempting to focus all diversity resources on those areas where the most significant diversity gaps exist – which for women is typically at the upper levels of an organisation. 

However, this type of targeted approach may have limited long-term impact. Broad and sustainable progress across the organisation will only be achieved by combining a laser focus on leadership diversity with substantive action that drives an inclusive talent culture and talent systems from day one and from the ground up. This means establishing critical Inclusion and Diversity interventions that work throughout the whole talent lifecycle. Without tackling the systemic challenges that arise earlier in the talent process, organisations will continue to face the same diversity gaps in the succession pipeline at the top.

Put simply, organisations must drive parallel efforts that tackle enhanced leadership diversity in conjunction with systemic change efforts, targeting their workforce from day one.

Commitment to diversity has become increasingly important for employers to attract talent – and today’s talent want to see both commitment to diversity and visible progress being made. Leadership commitment and the dedicated engagement of key stakeholders will take the organisation a long way on its inclusion journey, but will not be enough to achieve true success. An Inclusion and Diversity strategy needs to be inclusive of everyone. So employers should engage every one of their people in their diversity journey, empower all of them to be agents for change, and share progress with them at every step along the way.

PwC UK’s Women in Work (WiW) Index 2024 – the 12th edition of the Index – confirms that progress over the past 11 years towards gender equality across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries has been painfully slow. The OECD average WiW Index score increased two percentage points this year compared with last year’s Index results. Since first published in 2012 the average score has only increased by 11.5 percentage points. However, the measure within the index that’s seen the slowest progress during that time is the gender pay gap. The OECD’s average performance improved by 1-2 percentage points on all WiW Index indicators except for the gender pay gap, which increased by only 0.3 percentage points. Furthermore, 20 out of the 33 countries analysed in the WiW Index had a larger gender pay gap this year, compared to last year’s Index results. Progress on closing the gender pay gap remains far too slow, over the last decade, the average gender pay gap across the OECD fell by only 3.1 percentage points from 16.6% in 2012 to 13.5% in 2022. This #InclusionMatters research confirms that pay is a pain point for women in the workplace. Tellingly, only 39% of women feel they are being fairly rewarded financially for their work. 

In any discussion of financial compensation, the key words are ‘objective’ and ‘fair’. It follows that creating reward and pay schemes that are fair, based on merit and prevent the potential impacts of unconscious bias will be critical in achieving stronger gender equality in the workplace. So, alongside the gender proportionality of things like hires and promotions, reward is a further table-stakes data point on diversity that should be measured rigorously and consistently. And monitoring reward is not a one-off exercise: there’s a need for ongoing measurement and correction, paying particular attention at events and inflection points that might influence pay fairness across the workforce – including major initiatives such as acquisitions, headcount reductions, or efforts to attract talent with in-demand skills.