Is Gender Equality Good for Business

Is Gender Equality Good for Business Is gender equality good for business?Generally, attempts to answer this question focus on measuring the financial wertzuwachs, and stock-market performance of companies led by women CEOs or with female directors.Last week, for example, market index provider MSCI released astudyshowing that companies withat least 3 board directorsora higher percentage of women on their boards (compared to their countrys average) generated 36.4% higher returns for theirshareholders than companies where women were not as well-represented. This analysis was based on a review of4,000 global companies since 2009.Were not surprised to binnensee gender equality correlated with financial success. Paststudies (such as thisone from Credit Suisse, and another fromCatalyst) have shown similar relationships between gender diversity in the senior leadership and financial out-performance.So if gender equality means financial success, why arent there more companies jumping on the bandwagon? Wed venture to guess that part of the reason is simply that the studies show correlation not causation. Financial performance is easy to measure but its a tricky thing to understand, much less find a formula for. Many variables go into what makes some companies more successful than others as mountains ofbusiness booksdemonstrate.Another reason may simply bethat female representation at the upper echelonof acompany is not exactly the saatkorn thing as gender equality at that company. To use an analogy, having an African-American President of the United States doesnt mean there is racial equality throughout America.Dont get us wrong Its certainly important to measure gender equality by tracking the number of companies with female CEOs or directors. However, if you believea companys financial success depends on having a culture that welcomes and fosters diversity of thought and opinion, a culture of gender equality throughoutalllevels of an organization is probablyequally important. After all,many critical business decisions are made every day that never make it up to review of the C-suite or director level. The way a digital product is designed, discussions over the waya cars safety feature is tested, how a new campaign for childrens toys is marketed to households are all decisions initially made at the lower-to-mid levels of a company where diversity and representation of thought are critical.Thats why we try to measure what all women at an employer think. We ask every woman in theFairygodbosscommunitywhether they think theyre treated fairly and equally to men at work. In analyzing thousands of employee reviews, weve foundthat when women report there is gender equality in their workplace, they also report overall job satisfaction. Since job satisfaction is one predictor of how likely an employee is to remain at an employer itsan important measure of employee turn-over and recruitment costs.In other words, gender equality is certainly good for busi ness in terms of being able to recruit and retain employee talent. Stay tuned for more of our findings about gender equality in the workplace