Gender Mainstreaming In The Corporate Sector: A WinWin Strategy

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Gender Mainstreaming In The Corporate Sector A
Win-Win Strategy
Seminar On Corporate Social Responsibility
Wither Gender Equality? CenPRIS, 10 April 2008,
Co-organised by KANITA and the Vice Chancellors
Office

• Rashidah Shuib,
• Director, Womens Development Research Centre
  (KANITA), USM.

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SCOPE

• To present briefly the global and the national
  scenario with regard to CSR and gender
  mainstreaming.
• 2. To offer conceptual clarification on basic
  terms
• 3. To examine why Gender Mainstreaming matters
  in CSR
• 4. To explore Gender Mainstreaming as a Win-Win
  strategy How?
• 5. To identify some challenges to Gender
  Mainstreaming

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GLOBAL SCENARIO
a) Women, Gender Development

• Women and gender issues have had a long
• history
• Linked to sustainability sustainable
  development and sustainable health
• 1975 1st World Conference on Women in Mexico gtgt
  Gender, Equality, Development,
• Peace
• 1980 2nd Meeting in Copenhagen
• gtgt Equality, Development and Peace

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GLOBAL SCENARIO

• 1984 3rd Womens Conference in Nairobi
• gtgt Toward a Global Feminism
• 1994 Int. Conf. on Population Development
  (ICPD)
• gtgt Linkages between population and
• development , reproductive health
• the empowerment of women
• 1995 4th World Conference on Women, Beijing
  gtgtAction for Equality, Development and
  Peace.
• 2000 Millenium Development Goals
• gtgt gender equality, sustainable
  development poverty eradication

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GLOBAL SCENARIO

• Corporate Social Responsibility
• EU
• 1999 Adoption and introduction of gender
• mainstreaming in all policy fields.
• gtgt concrete strategies, measures means
• differ widely according to countries.
• Spain Gender Equality Law (2007)
  gtgt
• quota for the board
  of companies within 6 years
• Positive measures such as the
  Empresa Optima gender award system
  dedicated to gender equality
• (Schultz 2007b) gtgtpart of CSR approach

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• Norway Law defines a quota 40 of
  the supervisory boards of all
• public companies with
  more than five members must be women.
• UK CSR is a trend in contemporary
  business gtgtdefined as business
  responsibility in economic, legal,
  ethical and philanthropic activities
  (Carroll 1999)
• Japan Influenced by the UN Global
  Compact (GC) launched on 26 July 2000
• 10 principles in 4 areas Human Rights,
  Labour, Environment and
• Anti-Corruption .global citizenship
• (Hirata 2006)

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• NATIONAL SCENARIO
• Women,Gender and Development
• Malaysia abides by the principles of gender
  equality. (PMs speech at the tabling of the
  motion on the 9th MP, 2006-2010, 31 Mar 2006)
• Establishment of Gender Infrastructure
• gtgt Gender Equality Cabinet Committee chaired
  by the PM.
• gtgt Gender Focal Point in every Ministry
• gtgt Ministry of Women, Family and Community
• Development
• gtgt Introduced gender budget gt pilot in 5
  ministries
• gtgt CSR Award
• Signatories to international agreements and
  ratified
• CEDAW

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National scenario

• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Recognition that corporate sector is an important
  partner in development
• gtgt private sector as the main catalyst in
  economic development
• gtgt Need to build a strong and close partnership
  between the public and the private sectors (9th
  MP)

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National scenario

• Increasing awareness on the importance of CSR
  reported in Malaysia gtgtsupport from Securities
  Commission emphasizing professional and ethical
  management (NST 28 Apr 2006)
• 2005 45.7 of women in the labour force but
  only 5.4 in high administrative management
  positions.
• gtgt majority in assembly and service (lower
  rank)

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CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION
English language dictionaries, gender and
sex used as synonymous terms Past 3 decades,
gender evolved into a different concept

• SEX is the biological difference between males
  and females
• gtgtbiologically determined characteristics
• gtgtwith specific limited biologically
  determined roles which are often confused and
  extended to other public roles
• gtgt shaped the division of labour

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CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION

• GENDER refers to the economic, social and
  cultural attributes and opportunities associated
  with being male or female in a particular social
  settings at a particular point in time.
• gtgt social construct gtgt societys
  expectations
• gtgt different roles responsibilities
• gtgt different norms values
• gtgt different access to control over
  resources

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RESOURCES
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Gender and Development

• Gender equality empowerment of women
  pre-requisite condition to sustainable
  development, poverty eradication etc.
• Gender is relevant to all aspects of development
  (Kabeer 2003). Why?
• A gender perspective means recognising that
  women stand at the crossroads between production
  and reproduction, between economic activity and
  the care of human beings, and therefore between
  economic growth and human development. They are
  workers in both spheres those most responsible
  and therefore with most at stake, those who
  suffer most when the two spheres meet at
  cross-purposes, and those most sensitive to the
  need for better integration between the two.
  (Sen, quoted in Kabeer 2003)

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The 3 circles of sustainable development and CSR
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WHAT IS GENDER MAINSTREAMING?

• Often confused with
• gtgt projects for women
• gtgt must do something for men as well
• gtgt its a number game increase number of
  women.
• Gender Mainstreaming is a concept which emerged
  on the international development scene in the
  1980s.
• It has been explained as by the UN Office of the
  Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement
  of Women as follows

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WHAT IS GENDER MAINSTREAMING?

• "Gender Mainstreaming is a globally accepted
  strategy for promoting gender equality.
  Mainstreaming is not an end in itself but a
  strategy, an approach, a means to achieve the
  goal of gender equality. Mainstreaming involves
  ensuring that gender perspectives and attention
  to the goal of gender equality are central to all
  activities - policy development, research,
  advocacy/ dialogue, legislation, resource
  allocation, and planning, implementation and
  monitoring of programmes and projects."

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What is Gender Mainstreaming?

• is the integration of the gender perspective into
  every stage of policy processes design,
  implementation, monitoring and evaluation with
  a view to promoting equality between women and
  men.
• Need to assess how policies impact on the life
  and position of both women and men and taking
  responsibility to re-address them if necessary.

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What is Gender Mainstreaming?

• Result gtgt to make gender equality a concrete
  reality in the lives of women and men, creating
  space for everyone within the organisations as
  well as in communities
• To contribute to the process of articulating a
  shared vision of sustainable human development
  and translating it into reality

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GENDER MAINSTREAMING IS NOTgtgt

• NOT a goal,
• Not just content,
• BUT the strategy to achieve equality between
  women and men.
• This means
• Equality is the goal, Not an add on.
• Gender Mainstreaming is the strategy to achieve
  this goal,
• positive actions are one way to compensate for
  existing inequalities.

(Definitions from the Equal DP POP UP GeM,
Dorothea Sauer, Heide Cortolezis)
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Main Features of Gender Mainstreaming (Danish
National Research Documentation Centre on
Gender Equality 2002(?)

• Focuses both on men and women their
• gender relations
• Deals with political and administrative matters
  which often are treated as gender neutral e.g
  budget, town planning (gender neutral?)
• Clear, measurable objectives

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Main Features of Gender Mainstreaming

• Permanent changes gtgt GM process is complete when
  Gender Equality becomes part of the routine at
  work place part of the work culture.
• Systematic qualified integration gtgtanalyses
  always done before Gender Mainstreaming is
  undertaken. Need to question the potential
  impact of a decision/policy on men and women

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WHY Gender Mainstreaming?

• Gender mainstreaming makes good policy sense
• Every policy and activity has a gender
  perspective or implication. Decisions in economic
  and social policies and programmes, decisions
  influence and impact women and men differently.

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WHY Gender Mainstreaming?

• Experience shows policies and programmes are most
  effective when the impacts on gender are
  considered and addressed.
• For example, mainstreaming a gender perspective
  in the peace-building sector
• gtgtinstrumental in making personnel aware of
  the ways in which armed conflict affects women
  and girls differently and that post-conflict
  reconstruction and peace-building is more
  effective and long-lasting if gender analysis
  takes place from the outset.
• It has been recognized internationally that this
  significantly improves peace-building operations.

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WHY Gender Mainstreaming?

• Growing role of private sector in national and
  global governance gtgtopened new sites for
  political representations
• gtgt new possibilities for corporate sector
  accountability on social issues (Grosser and
  Moon, 2005)
• New corporate roles gtgtnew forms of citizenship
• gtgt Act as if they were citizens
• gtgt Administrators of peoples citizenship
• gtgt Stakeholders engagement in citizenship-like
  roles

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WHY Gender Mainstreaming?

• Gender mainstreaming contributes to the redresses
  of systemic gender-based discrimination.
• For example, while trade liberalization can
  provide new employment opportunities for both men
  and women, the market access opportunities that
  it creates can be difficult for women to take
  advantage of the system.

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WHY?

• This is because in many societies women have
  limited property rights and lack access to things
  like credit, modern technologies and marketing
  expertise.
• Early examination of gender impacts could provide
  guidance for the ongoing implementation of
  existing trade rules and ensure future trade
  rules are gender-sensitive, resulting in a
  strengthened international trading system.

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Mainstream Gender In corporate sector involves

• Situating gender at the heart of social analysis
  from concept to measurement
• Identifying gender issues and assessing gender
  outcomes of policies
• Promoting gender equity (Walby 2004)

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Mainstream Gender In corporate sector involves

• Gender mainstreaming is a technical process
  therefore need technical tools
• gtgt sex disaggregated statistics
• gtgt gender analysis of those statistics
• gtgt gender impact assessment,
• gtgt development of gender equality indicators
• gtgt capacity buildinggtgtgender sensitization,
• gender equality training

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Mainstream Gender In corporate sector involves

• Gender mainstreaming is a political process
• gtgt gender equality is an ideology and therefore
  very political
• gtgt to enhance the inclusion participation of
  women in decision-making
• gtgt reduce or eliminate gendered barriers

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A win-win strategy?

• Emerging literature on the link between
  long-term business success and the treatment of
  employees and equality of opportunity through
• gtgt gender/diversity in employment/human capital
  management e.g recruiting employees from
  traditionally excluded group
• gtgtgt talented and motivated group (Kingsmill
  2001, DTI 2003 )
• gtgt family friendly policies (Dex 2004)
• gtgt female representation on company boards
  (Singh and Vinnicombe 2003)
• Shown to be efficient and increased productivity

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A win-win strategy?

• Consumers awareness and engagement in CSR type
  initiatives is increasing.
• gtgt Ethical consumerism market worth 19.9 billion
  pounds and boycotts on ethical ground meant a
  loss of 2.6 billion pounds (Consumer watch, 2004)
  
• gtgt Consumers see them benefiting and also
• business can differentiate from those who do
  not practice gender mainstreaming
• Better corporate image

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CHALLENGES TO GENDER MAINSTREAMING

• Gender awareness and conceptual clarity gtgt
  confusion exists between equal opportunity,
  affirmative action and gender mainstreaming
• Countrys political commitment which shapes and
  influences corporate sector
• Need to overcome sensitivity around gender
  equality gtgt more open discourses, evidence

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• THANK YOU
• 30 YEARS KANITA