Author Archives: Emili Cardiel
The transformative commitment of cities and territories to Generation Equality

The transformative commitment of cities and territories to Generation Equality.

A Global Feminist Municipal Movement.

This publication is an invitation to travel together along a path of democratic construction, towards a Feminist Municipal Movement, from which to achieve the effective recognition of the rights of women and diverse groups already enshrined in multiple international human rights instruments.

But not only that; it also aims to deepen and improve local democracies for men and women, for society as a whole.

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The World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments welcomes you to the largest organization of local and regional governments in the world. Now you, we, follow in the footsteps of countless women and men who have worked tirelessly to empower each other, for more than a century, to bring about real change for our societies.


Who is this handbook for?

This handbook will be relevant for every organisation and for all work contexts, both in the public and private sector. However, the content has been tailored to the context of the EU institutions and agencies.

What is the aim of this handbook?

The focus of this handbook is to help organisations understand the nature of sexism in work contexts and to provide leadership, management and staff with the tools to tackle it. The focus is on informal mechanisms to foster cultural change. The handbook also touches on ways to deal with sexual harassment, which is illegal, constitutes discrimination and is a form of violence. EU-wide legal obligations necessitate formal responses to such behaviour. While informal mechanisms can accompany formal responses to sexual harassment, they cannot replace them.

What is the scope of this handbook?

The focus is on policies which cover all staff employed directly by the EU (such as the Staff Regulations of Officials and Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union), highlighting specific good practices and pinpointing gaps.

HandBook


Confronting the early-career gender gap

To achieve workforce parity, businesses should apply the same practices they are using against the glass ceiling…

Commitment to gender parity at the senior level in companies has been on the rise, and we are starting to see results. The average C-suite has 24 percent more women than in 2015. The share of open roles going to women is rising, through either promotions or hiring.

That progress engenders more progress: C-suite members have an outsize impact on promoting diversity and inclusion in their companies. They also are visible role models to other women coming up the ranks.

Still, we shouldn’t confuse progress with parity. To create workplaces where young men and women progress equally into top-level business leaders, we must address a glaring gender disparity at the very first rung of the corporate ladder. While women account for 48 percent of entry-level hires, they account for just 38 percent of first-level managers, according to the 2019 Women in the Workplace study we at McKinsey developed together with LeanIn.Org

Let that soak in for a moment. That collective stumble on the first step up the corporate ladder suggests that over the next five years, one million women in corporate America will get stuck at the entry level while their male counterparts move into promising career paths. That is equivalent to nearly 25 Major League Baseball stadiums full of women.

It gets worse. The fact that all these women are getting stuck or left behind early in their careers results in today’s unbalanced talent pipeline—women account for just 30 percent of all vice presidents, versus men at 70 percent.

Remedying problems at the beginning of the talent pipeline might be the key to turning incremental gains into explosive ones. At the current pace of change, we will bridge the gap at the first promotion rung in 30 years. If, on the other hand, we start hiring and promoting women into first manager roles at equal rates as men today, we could bridge most of the gap between entry-level and manager roles for women in just five years.

Companies have the tools to make this happen. We know this because they are using them to crack the “glass ceiling,” increasing the percentage of women at the very top. Now it is time to extend those practices to the rest of the organization. Across the companies we work with, three practices stand out.

  • Hold managers accountable for increasing gender parity. While only 15 percent of companies do this for early-tenured managers today, some 55 percent hold their top leadership accountable for gender parity. Increased accountability must be accompanied by better support and tools. Managers need clear goals, data visibility on how they are doing, positive incentives, and training on inclusive leadership.
  • Deliver on opportunities and fairness. This may sound obvious, but all too often companies fall short. Only 40 percent of employees believe that promotions go to the most deserving candidates. Meaningful correctives such as debiasing performance reviews, leadership succession planning, gender-balanced promotion slates, and formal sponsorship programs should be applied at any company that believes in gender equality. The payoff can be rich; in a fair workplace where opportunities are distributed equally and without bias, men and women are three times as happy and three times as likely to stay.
  • Apply the science of ‘nudges’ to your implementation efforts. Making change stick means shifting day-to-day behavior. Nudges are simple prompts on daily actions that create more inclusive working experiences for those around you. Examples for managers include sharing the spotlight, curiously seeking out the opinions of others, or speaking up when you see someone withdrawing from a conversation or being interrupted.

A few years ago, we reported that it would take 100 years to reach gender parity in the workplace. The two of us are researchers and parents—a father of two daughters and a mother of three boys. We want to see parity in the workplace in a few years, when our kids will enter the workforce—not when they retire from it.

To drive toward gender parity at a faster pace, companies must avoid tripping at the first step up. Luckily, most companies have the tools they need. If they apply measures that have been successful at the C-suite to first-manager promotions and hires, they can turbocharge efforts toward workforce parity.

This article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal under the title “Remedies for early-career gender gap are already in companies’ hands.”


Bring Equality to your city

How can we bring Gender Equality to cities?

With the Gender Equality Management System as SGCITY5050 local governments can improve their public policies and build egalitarian, safer and more socially cohesive

 


The non-profi t FORGENDER SEAL Association’s purpose is to create gender management systems that help develop fairer and more egalitarian societies. It also strives for participatory democracies with parity of representation, and generating political conviction and determination in favor of equality.

The SG City 50-50 Standard is the first international rule that allows to implement a managing system for the assessment and certifi cation of the commitment of city governments in favor of gender equality.

A city obtains the Gender Equality Seal through a certification process, and in this way, the city reinforces its leadership and becomes an agent of change, politically and strategically committed in favor of the effective equality between women and men.

The SG CITY 50-50 Seal, provides the municipalities with a tool that favors in inclusion of the gender perspective in policies and actions of local administrations

The Gender Equality Seal was designed by following the municipal areas of responsibility, the national regulations, and the international mandates and treaties concerning women’s human rights, human development, cities, and climate change (the 2030 Agenda and the New Urban Agenda).

More information: Flyer


Día de las Naciones Unidas 24 Octubre 2019

Secretary-General’s Message for 2019

United Nations Day highlights the enduring ideals of the Charter, which entered into force on this date 74 years ago.

Amid stormy global seas, the Charter remains our shared moral anchor.

At this time of turbo-charged change, the United Nations remains focused on the real problems of real people.

We are working for a fair globalization and bold climate action.

We are pushing for human rights and gender equality — and saying “no” to hatred of any kind.

And we are striving to maintain peace – while bringing life-saving aid to millions caught up in armed conflict.

The United Nations itself is becoming ever more agile and accountable as we enhance support to countries.

Next year marks the Organization’s 75th anniversary.  This milestone is a critical moment to shape our future, together.

I invite you to join the conversation.

Together, let us advance the well-being of “we the peoples”.

António Guterres