Tag: IWD

It was predictable that this year’s edition of the International Women’s Day (8 March) would go the same way the previous ones went. Organisations in the private and public sectors as well as those of religious inclinations rolled out celebratory gestures, including saccharine-heavy messages, as a way of showing they consider the day a significant one.

Beyond those skin-deep gestures, which amount to nothing other than lip service, the age-old issues remain the same. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”. But beyond the flashy advertorials and presentations, do organizations truly and adequately invest in women to accelerate progress?

In this century, issues like gender-pay gap, gender discrimination, and inequality are still rife in many organisations, rendering the annual celebration of International Women’s Day as nothing other than a ceremonial tradition as opposed to a movement geared towards dislodging age-long stereotypes that erect mile-high odds against women.

Gender parity, as a concept, is the focal point of the International Women’s Day celebration. It is an instrument that serves equality, and after well over a century of the promotion of this ideal in different facets of life, reminders are constantly needed to ensure that the ideals being preached are not eroded.

For example, it was common sight to walk into a boardroom many decades ago and find an army of men in suits making decisions that pertained to people, women included. Most women could not get seats at the table for diverse reasons. Years down the line, it has been discovered that many of those reasons were excuses to simply shut women out.

While some genuinely held the notion that women were too intellectually weak to participate in serious matters, a few held on to the archaic ideas to inadvertently punish women for biological reasons beyond their control. Some organizations would go as far as disqualifying women of childbearing age from employment for fear of the women taking maternity leave. For women beyond childbearing age, others considered them unemployable for fear of early senility. These were real issues that women of those ages faced.

But now, the game has changed, and the issues, while the same, have taken a new shape. Women are employable and employed. Women are involved, but just to fulfill a quota, like a catchment area system employed by institutions of learning. Beyond that though, no more allowances are given for women irrespective of need or qualification.

These days, those organisations that do recognise and truly implement gender parity in the best way are few and far between. One of such is leading African entertainment company MultiChoice. At executive level, they have achieved a 50 to 60 percent female management across the group and this is the same story across the different levels in the group.

Read Also:IWD: Guinness Nigeria seeks inclusion, gender equality at workplaces

As opposed to the age long theories that have kept women out of management, and the decision-making process, MultiChoice thrives because it is using to the best of its ability all of the resources at its disposal.

The same can be seen with the Miss Nigeria pageant. In the last few weeks, it seems new life has been breathed into the pageant as the management unveiled a total of six high-flying women to sit on its board.

All the available evidence points to the continued success of organisations when women are involved.

Instead of paying expensive lip service and expending energy at keeping a large percentage of the population away from management and forms of leadership, it is inherently cheaper and easier to glean wisdom from organisations that practice what they preach.

Value-based PR allows for an organisational culture that truly recognises and enables gender inclusion for women. It is a better, meaningful investment than flashy advertorials and inane messages that carry no weight with its intended audience.

• Dike, a PR Specialist, writes from Lagos