International Woman’s Day was last week, March 8th to be exact. It’s a day to celebrate women’s achievements, rights and the progress of women in all aspects of society.
And I look forward to a world where this doesn’t have to be celebrated anymore! That equality, achievement and rights are universal across all – all genders, dis/abilities, ages, ethnicities, education, race, sexuality – that it’s just humanity rather than every minority or majority.
Sadly many minorities still have progress to be made in terms of equal opportunities, woman included. According to the World Economic Forum, it will take 217 years to close the workplace gender gap. Even if this is wrong by 50% that’s still over 100 years. Is that what we want of ourselves as women, for our mothers, wives, sisters, daughters?
Now is the time to move from “implicit exclusion to implicit inclusion” as Susan Goldsworthy from IMD recently wrote. How do we now consciously include all people rather than the current unconscious bias towards the norm/the usual/historic/our own images?
Research shows diversity leads to greater creativity, innovation and financial performance in organizations. What company doesn’t have innovation in their strategy and want more profit?
It takes courage to do things different and work with different people and the results appear to be worth it. What small act could you do today to include a different perspective into your project, organization or community?
