Today, March 8th, marks International Women’s Day – a day observed around the world in celebration of women's economic, political, and social achievements. Back in 2010, March 8th was also chosen by the United Nations as the launch date of the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), a set of seven guiding principles that, if adopted fully by companies, would lead to gender equality in the workplace.
Source: weprinciples.org
Unfortunately, six years after the launch of the UN’s WEPs, there is much that remains to be done. In fact, if we continue on today’s adoption trajectory, we will not reach gender parity globally until the year 2133!
Source: EY – Women Fast Forward (http://www.ey.com/GL/en/Issues/Business-environment/women-fast-forward)
I want to take the opportunity today to talk about what we, as Symantec employees, can do to move the world towards gender parity. I believe Symantec has the right corporate-level approach to gender equality: we have set a framework by being a founding signatory of WEP, and these principles provide us with a structure to ensure that Symantec remains a place where innovative ideas can flourish, and where both women and men can have productive and satisfying careers.
But what can we, as individuals, do to ensure we’re helping the company towards its goals? It starts with being aware, and speaking out when we have the opportunity to do so. I champion gender equality in my interactions with everyone I can at Symantec, from the members of the ELT, to members of my own organization and team.
As part of the ELT, I push for us to take action to meet our goal of increasing women in leadership by 5% this year. I keep a pulse on our progress–how many women did we put forth for promotion? How many did we promote? I also think about and call out what comes across as bias in this context. I do the same with my teams–I demand that our slates for hiring include a diverse slate, and I ask “why” if it doesn’t. When looking at our marketing events, I ask to have a gender mix amongst the talent representing us in our campaigns.
My own team is very diverse—50% of my direct reports are women—so being “different” is simply not an issue. The challenge on my team is to make sure everyone is comfortable with confrontation and debate. No one on my team, regardless of gender, should be afraid of open dialogue and debate, and we’re fostering an environment that embraces it.
It’s in the little decisions we make day-to-day that we start to change culture and move the needle on inclusiveness. I absolutely believe that including the widest array of backgrounds and ideas is the best way to analyze problems, generate ideas, and create new products.
Today I ask you to join me in pledging for gender parity. You can see what my pledges are, and can also see that I had trouble picking just one. I want to know what will you do to bridge the gender gap at Symantec? Without all of our employees taking action, true gender parity remains a far off goal. I urge you to not let that happen and pledge today to do something about it! Comment below to share your pledges.
Roxane Divol is Symantec's SVP and GM, Trust Services