Antony Platt, Omnicell's UK HR Business Partner takes a look at why International Women's Day is the time to make a difference.

At Omnicell, we’re committed to championing gender equality. We believe that each one of us, whatever our gender identity, can help create a gender equal world – and that this is not only the right thing to do, but is good for our business.

And before you ask - why do we not celebrate International Men’s Day? We do!  It is celebrated on 19^th November, but interestingly more people talk about International Men’s Day on International Women’s Day (in March) than they do on the day it is actually celebrated (in November). Google and Twitter trends show the figure to be almost twice as many. This for me implies that rather than IWD coming from a place of education and openness, as it’s intended, it comes from a place of bitterness and contempt. We need to make sure we treat this day as a good opportunity to reflect on progress, discuss key challenges and highlight opportunities to make further improvements.

With this said I would like to take a moment to initiate a conversation on what International Women’s Day means for me? Why it is so important? And what we should be doing to improve gender equality?

A time for reflection

It is important that we embrace the reality of the situation. Despite decades of progress the impact of Covid-19 has now widened the gap further, there’s still a great deal of inequality in workplaces across the world. Whilst we might have some legislation in place, statistics still indicate  issues of inequality remain at work:

• Gender Pay Gap – 31.4% (Women paid less than men)
• Leadership - 23.7% (Women Chief Executives and Senior Officials)
• Women in work - 46.9% (Women in employment, compared to 74% of men)
• Part-Time - 40% (Women working part-time, compared to 13% of men working part-time).

*Please note that these are not Omnicell statistics, but global statistics which includes the world population.

The finding of the Global Gender Gap Report, reveals that gender parity will not be attained for 99.5 years meaning none of us will see gender parity in our lifetimes, and nor will many of our children. If we embrace this reality, we might actually be able to make significant changes and leave a positive legacy behind for our children to benefit from.

Avoid being part of the problem

I understand that highlighting the gender gap data is not enough, the figures only tell us if there’s a problem. The real solution is the interpretation of the data, the identification of the causes of the gap and the action taken to address those.

Reasons for non-engagement could be:

1. Lack of interest - feeling like gender equality isn’t business-critical
2. Ignorance - a perception that gender bias doesn’t exist in the workplace
3. Fear - saying the wrong thing or losing out

If we all strive to create an environment free of conscious and unconscious bias, we can as a collective get to the ideal sooner rather than later.

Take Action

I understand that there is a danger that International Women’s Day is becoming more of a corporate day for promotional activity rather than an occasion to promote women's equality.

The reality is that companies need to act to help close the gap further by shifting individual behavior, committing to inclusive policies and using their influence to shape new social norms.

To really drive meaningful change, I believe our employees at Omnicell could take the actions to close the gap:

1. Play your part in creating a culture of inclusivity. Where employees feel a sense of belonging and acceptance which will enhance our employee experience and engagement.
2. We should be committed to create a more diverse workforce, whereby we continue to hire smart and empower our employees to speak up and listen to ensure people feel supported at work.
3. Take advantage of the ‘new ways of working’ to remain flexible to achieve true work/life balance while meeting the demands of the business.
4. Take direction from our companies’ core values and continue to ‘do the right thing’. Making a more equal world is down to us all - every. single. individual.

So, what can YOU do to promote equality and make this a more equal world? I hope reading this has provoked you to think about what you can do, in order to make a difference.