Why we must finally bring an end to the prickly gender bias - Beckie Hart

International Women’s Day marks my three-year anniversary of writing a column for this paper, during that time it’s been great to see so many inspiring female leaders featured in its pages and long may that continue because there are so many more out there.
Beckie HartBeckie Hart
Beckie Hart

To mark the event at the CBI, we were all asked to record a clip of which women had inspired us during the course of our career, I felt that was a really tough ask as there are so many, so rather than choose one, I decided to nominate my whole hockey team instead.

The reason being is that they represent diversity in many forms, age, sexuality, socio economic background and career choice, and demonstrate that regardless of what you do, where you come from or who you are when you collaborate together you can even beat a team half your age.

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The same would go for business, those businesses who employ a diverse workforce tap into a talent pool whose combined abilities and experience hold the potential to be truly transformational.

Having just launched the CBI Future Leaders network in Bradford a couple of weeks ago, it struck me just how vital it is that we ensure they have all they need to succeed.

Our talented business leaders of today must seize the opportunity to develop tomorrow’s high performing workforce by investing in them, nurturing them and above all demonstrating to them that they are exemplar employers.

Last week our Director General, Carolyn Fairbairn, was on a regional visit to the Sheffield City Region and I was really proud to see so many of the businesses we met talk about their plans to celebrate Inter-national Women’s Day and pledge to be “Each for Equal”. This pledge is about each and every one of us using our voice and our influence to create change, challenge stereotypes, fight bias, and broaden perceptions.

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While a simple snap of the fingers won’t tackle this challenge overnight, there are certain measures business leaders can implement to take a step in the right direction for gender parity this International Women’s Day.

We can take heart in how far we’ve already come.

Exceptional women in every field are breaking boundaries, taking on leadership roles, providing great role models for our girls and young women. The number of women in work has never been higher, and we have equal numbers of men and women starting out as apprentices and joining graduate schemes.

But we’re not there yet. Company practices need to be even more inclusive, sexual harassment needs to be stamped out, slow progress on career progression for women must be addressed and the gender pay gap needs to be closed by moving to a world where there are just jobs – not men’s jobs and women’s jobs.

The #EachforEqual theme encourages us to reflect on progress made and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.

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It makes me think, what can we all do? Well, I believe that change starts with each of us taking on our own cause, stepping into our power and making ourselves more visible. This is how we raise the tide that lifts all ships.

International Women’s Day isn’t just for half the population. It is for men too. Good allies are those people who don’t just have good intentions, but who are making a positive impact and taking action.

In our region we can have a host of the kind of companies that empower women and champions gender parity in a world where inequality still unfortunately reigns.

Let’s bring an end to the prickly gender bias that has clamped a firm grip on society for far too long. Building a system that is #EachforEqual starts with each of us. It starts now.

Beckie Hart is regional director for the CBI in Yorkshire