IWD #Breakthebias; Forcing Accountability
Imagine after your company posts a celebratory tweet about ‘International Women’s Day #breakthebias” and receives a reply highlighting the gender pay gap at your company! Well, that’s what several companies received as you can see by the image below.
Some people are against the “calling-out culture”, however there are times when it’s needed and this is one of them. The “#Breakthebias” movement for the 2022 International Women’s Day is focused on taking action to break the gender bias against women in order to create an inclusive world where women are valued equally. It is considered performative for a company to try to promote their brand as supporting this cause but not actually checking and correcting their internal Gender Bias. This Gender Pay Gap Bot was created to hold companies, like the one in the example above, accountable for their lack of action when they claim to support this campaign. (I guess this company didn’t want their brand associated with their 81.6% gender pay hourly gap and removed their tweet!)
Take heed to this BrandRewind moment, if you truly are behind equity and equality for women in your workplace, then your actions need to match your words. For Brands looking to make statements to align with a movement or show your support, check your actions first otherwise you too could get called out for your poor brand performance.
Zoe Mitchell is the founder of Sharp Processes, a leadership consultancy focused on improving employee engagement using Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Process Improvement with her 20 years of corporate senior leadership positions. She is also the author of Inclusive Leadership Now (available on Amazon).
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