Beyond the boardroom: 5 tips for improving gender equality across the value chain

The economic case for investing in women is now well established. A report from McKinsey estimates that between $12 trillion and $28 trillion could be added to the global economy every year by 2025 if women were to obtain equal access and rights in labor markets. Empowering women has been shown to be good for a business’s balance sheet, and companies with diverse workforces are more likely to outperform their peers. Despite this, many businesses are still lagging behind. Recent research indicates that, at current rates of progress, full economic equality could take another 170 years to achieve. Today, women are still less likely than men to have paid jobs. Of those who do, they earn little over half as much as men on average, according to the 2016 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap study. While the business case for gender equality in the office and in the boardroom is strong, there is a less frequently articulated but equally transformative case to be made for applying a gender lens across the value chain — focusing on women actors in the supply chain, as customers, and as members of the local communities within which a company operates. This is the view of the International Center for Research on Women’s new advisory practice, which draws on ICRW’s four decades of research and thought-leadership on gender in low- and middle-income countries to help businesses and nonprofits realize the social and economic benefits of empowering women throughout their value chains, according to project manager Genevieve Smith. “More businesses are coming around to the idea that there is a business case for including women since supporting gender equality and women’s empowerment through the value chain provides opportunities to enhance growth and productivity, as well as reduce risk,” Smith said. Services offered include gender diagnostics (conducting baseline assessments and identifying potential opportunities); strategic guidance (designing gender strategies to meet the client’s specific goals); and designing initiatives, programs and policies. “We recognize the tremendous opportunities the private sector has, both domestically and globally, to advance gender equality for social and business benefit. And we want to help companies realize those opportunities,” said ICRW President Sarah Degnan Kambou. Here are five things businesses need to think about when considering how to improve their gender and diversity performance across the business value chain. 1. Leadership buy-in is key The most important thing when considering how to align business goals with gender strategies is to ensure that the people at the top of the company are fully bought into the vision and are not simply checking a box, Smith said. “Unless there is that buy-in, gender equality and women’s empowerment initiatives will stay within the corporate social responsibility realm and I think that’s a huge missed opportunity in terms of both social benefit and business benefit,” she said. Convincing a sceptical executive about the value of gender strategies could be as simple as showing them the research, but it could also involve more thorough work to demonstrate where, how and why gender can be “material” to a particular company working in a specific sector, she said. ICRW’s “gender diagnostic” looks at which policies and practices are currently in place, identifies any gender pay gaps and analyzes the company culture to produce a set of recommendations, Smith said. 2. Target all parts of the value chain, not just the boardroom For many companies with supply chains in developing countries, the majority of actors along the chain will be women. Approximately three-quarters of the up to 75 million workers worldwide in garment industry supply chains are women, for example. Furthermore, many consumers in developing countries will also be women: women influence 80 percent of buying decisions and account for $20 trillion in global spending. Women will also play important and influential roles in the communities where companies source materials and labor, sell their products, and conduct testing and research. It makes market sense, therefore, to target these women through various gender equity and empowerment programs, says ICRW. Supporting women in the supply chain — as suppliers, contractors and distributors — can result in stronger and larger supplier networks, higher input quality, better productivity and enhanced market growth, according to Smith. There are already examples of multinational companies doing this and reaping the benefits. For example, Unilever supports women retailers and entrepreneurs to access finance and grow their businesses, making them better able to sell the company’s products, as well as other goods. In another case, a training program that aimed to empower women selling clean cookstoves led to substantially increased sales among both sexes. Walmart and Johnson & Johnson are also among a group of companies that recently committed to increase their sourcing from women-owned businesses. “Businesses have many touch points on women’s lives — as employees, in the supply chain, as producers and consumers, and those living in the communities where businesses operate. They therefore have many opportunities to positively impact women’s lives and enhance their economic well-being,” Smith said. 3. Be authentic While women’s empowerment is a hot topic, any work to promote these ideals needs to be authentic and informed by experience, Smith said. Pepsi recently learned this the hard way when its latest commercial created a backlash from viewers, who accused it of seeming to trivialize the Black Lives Matter movement. Working with a group such as ICRW, the Win-Win Coalition, the Women’s Empowerment Principles of UN Women and UN Global Compact, or WEConnect International, can help to ensure companies’ initiatives are appropriately tailored ,“because we have that authentic understanding of what women’s empowerment means in diverse contexts globally and so we offer that deep well of experience to the companies we work with,” Smith said. 4. Integrate gender across the organization Historically, gender and women’s empowerment activities have been largely disconnected from core business strategy resulting in ad hoc or fragmented initiatives. However, to be sustainable, gender strategies should be integrated across different functions and departments within a company, according to Smith. “If a company is serious about gender then it needs to be integrated and applied in a holistic way through human resources policies, and across teams and departments as diverse as R&D, marketing and procurement,” she said. If this doesn’t happen then gender strategies could be “siloed,” resulting in the organization having limited impact, both from a business and social perspective, Smith warned. 5. Ask the experts “Understanding when you need help and bringing in experts is really important,” Smith said, due to the sensitive and complex nature of these issues. “These topics are tough. Being able to contextualize and apply gender strategies to different areas of your company can require help,” she added. ICRW now also runs a Corporate Circle, a membership group attended by senior executives from companies including Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs. Through the Corporate Circle, members can access the latest news, research and trends on investing in women, and engage with experts on how to align gender strategies with business goals. Devex delivers cutting-edge insights and analysis to the leaders shaping and innovating the business of development. Make sure you don't miss out. Become a Devex Executive Member today.