The principles of femininity have been helpful to the creation of modern policies of corporate structures and their relations with the employees in the conditions of today’s constantly changing environment. The movement that seeks to create equal opportunities for both male and female has transpired to become not only a social movement but an organizational phenomenon as well. Feminist perspectives if incorporated in organizations are able to ensure equal opportunities for all while working hard to avoid the biases. This is especially pertinent to today’s organisational functioning environment since organisations aim at leveling playing field for all employees.
Over the years, traditional organisational structures have aligned themselves to patriarchal values where male executives and employees are recruited and rewarded more, few women ascend the corporate ladder and women’s employee benefits do not allow for these to be achieved. However, feminism in the twentieth century created increasing awareness regarding the demand to confront and transform those traditional values. Feminism, in addition to advocating equal rights for women also conforms to intersectionality, which is a concept that points out that issues of discrimination are related, interconnected and are mutually reinforcing. Today, many organisations are embracing feminism to bring in equality policies into the workplace. These improvements go beyond simple wage equality or the increase in the number of women at the top positions, for they mean the formation of conditions at work which will allow people to thrive regardless of gender, marital status, or past. With such inclusive measures included, organizations are discovering that they not only foster creativity and satisfaction among employees while furthering the cause of the organizations to remain competitively relevant globally.
Feminism perhaps has affected corporate policies in the largest way by demanding equal pay for both the male and female employees. For the years women have been employed, they have been paid less than men for the same work and in the worst scenario, women of colour. Thanks to feminist activism the problem has undergone a legal reform in several countries and adoption of the corporate policy on equality in the remuneration. Equal opportunities in progressive organizations are maintained and checked through tools, such as the salary audit, for parity across the board. The EU regulations and some of America that have enacted the pay transparency laws make it compulsory for organizations to reveal the salaries, thereby creating more responsibility. The above strategies are in line with feminism since the latter emphasizes the need to eliminate cloak and dagger that sustain inequality in pay. Note also that some corporations with a feminism foundation have been established to foster the cause of women with resultant equality in job promotion and ensuing leadership positions. All these goals are directed at the establishment of diversified and gender-sensitive corporate culture.
Over the years, feminism has helped push for and improve parenteral leave policies that resist the idea that only women should be kept home caring for kids. Earlier, maternity leave was rarely well-provided, and although paternity leave was less, it was often omitted or not deemed required at all. Most feminism views call for equal responsibilities in child care and hence cause organizations to adopt this kind of policies. They included: Hence, most firms have implemented gender-neutral parental leave that allow fathers and mothers the same amount of time off. Many of such measures do not only advocate for gender equity in the aspect of caregiving but also chip away at stereotyped workplace expectations of women as the primary caregivers. In addition, the adoption of new human resource practices such as teleworking and variable working schedules, along with job sharing has enabled parents especially mothers to balance between family responsibilities and their career goals. This change has been hastened by the COVID-19 crisis, proving that remote work is not only possible but possible that it may in fact beneficial to both productivity and the health of employees. Another aspect to look at is the promotion of safe and free from harassment workplaces.
Feminist work in the workplace has focused mainly on issues to do with sexual harassment and addressing concerns of workers. The #MeToo movement which originated from massive trends in the society as a feminism reaction to sexual misconduct has affected international business regulation policies. Employers owe it to their employees to protect them from harassment, hence the recent drive for more stringent rules when it comes to the safety and respect for employee rights. Feminist guidelines as imperative for creating extensive anti-harassment policies: Achieving clear and effective reporting, equal treatment in investigations, and appropriate and stringent penalties for the offenders. Besides policy development, resources are further being spent on conducting regularly organized sessions with topics focused on Unconscious bias, Workplace Respect, Bystander Intervention to ensure Respectful Workplaces. The objective is a step further from mitigating harassment remedies to preventing harassment by training employees and foster change in organizational culture.
Initially, feminism focused on gender injustices and discrimination, and as it has brought together causes of marginalized people with multifaceted oppression, has broadened the issues it covers to include intersectional concerns. In the light of corporate masculinity, the well-accepted knowledge of feminism has now realized that workplaces are not sexist only in terms of gender but there are other prejudices linked with identity markers and comprise race, color, disability, sexual orientation, etc. As such, organizations have developed broad outlined strategies that go beyond gender mainstreaming. These include the initiatives to ensure that the staff is protected on grounds of sexual orientation, having accommodation for people with disabilities as well as promoting diversity based on race and color within office employment. Such advocacy grounded on intersectionality has led to the creation of such derivations as employee resource groups, mentorship programs, and diversity and inclusion committees. These efforts attempt to reinforce the company culture to accept the workforce’s and customer’s multifaceted diversity.
For that reason, adapting the principles of feminism into corporate policies is not only a matter of moral and ethical imperative, as it constitutes a coherent business model. Studies have time and again concluded that organizations in support of diversity and inclusion are significantly superior to their counterparts when it comes to developing unique ideas, creativity, and tend to generate high revenues. Employees who need to be valued and supported are likely to display high level of engagement, productivity and organizational commitment. In the current world economy, management’s commitment to increase diversity and inclusion promotes competitive advantage in talent attraction and commitment. In addition, depending on the growing demands of the consumers, companies that embrace social and diverse responsibilities enhance their image.
This changing work environment has gone through remarkable transformation through what is referred in the tennis as liberalism feminist principles that call for integration of equity practices in the place of work. If, for example, work is being done to rectify inequalities in wages between male and female workers, extend the arrangement of parental leave, prioritize establishing policies regarding health and safety, and engage with intersectional philosophy, it results in a more diverse and productive enterprise. This is the future of work where organizations are moving up to apply feminist values in their workplaces to ensure gender, identity, and background do not limit success.
Dr. Ankur Kashyap is an Assistant Professor and Apurva Tiwari is a research scholar in School of Law, Bennett University
