13 Ideas To Promote Female Equality In The Workplace

Recent data shows that there is a 21% pay gap between female and male workers and a third of businesses have no women in senior management roles.

There's a number of things businesses can do to address this, like having salary audits, encouraging more open conversations, and assigning in-house champions.

Below, 13 coaches from Forbes Coaches Council offer more tangible solutions to promote female equality in the workplace.

1. Have In-house Champions

Over the years, gender equality issues have been present in many workplaces. The good news is that women are becoming more and more empowered in the corporate world these days. In fact, an article in CNN states that “companies with a high representation of women board members significantly outperformed those with no female directors.” In other words, the more diverse leaders are on the topic, the better the rate of success. My advice is to promote gender equality in the office by creating a group of in-house advocates. Having employees who champion this advocacy means they can oversee short-term, and sustain long-term, actions towards equality.   – Dr. Cherry Collier, Personality Matters, INC.

2. Be Transparent About Wanting to Make a Change

The easiest way is to look inside your organization and answer the following: How many women do you employ? How many of those women are in top level/executive positions? Are women in equivalent roles to men paid equally? If you're serious about promoting female equality in the workplace, be transparent about your desire address these questions and then follow up with real, shared action.   – Cha Tekeli, Chalamode, Inc.

3. Acknowledge and Reward Different Leadership Styles

Men and women lead in different ways. Men are comfortable with hierarchy and tend to promote themselves and their individual work. Women lead in democratic, consensus-building ways, advocate for their teams and don't stand out as individual leaders. Hence, adding group accomplishments and team productivity into performance evaluations will reward women's collaborative leadership styles.   – Julie P. Kantor, Ph.D., JP Kantor Consulting

4. Implement Three Simple Steps

I believe these three steps will help us reach female equality in the workplace more quickly:

1. Remove names from the resume screening process and select candidates for interviews based only on education, experience and other required qualifications.

2. Pay people market rate salaries versus making salary decisions based on salary history.

3. Change company culture to reward outcomes achieved not hours worked.

    – Anu Mandapati, IMPACT Leadership for Women

5. Know Your Bias

Men in the workplace need to intimately examine and come to peace with the fact that they are innately biased — if not deliberately and maliciously, then passively and subconsciously. Men, let's level with one another. We don't know how to be perfectly unbiased, and no human being is. Admitting bias (if only to yourself) is the best step to being more open, objective and honest in the workplace.   – Dave Ursillo, The Literati Writers

6. Have Open and Candid Dialogs Between Men and Women

Too often, women speak almost exclusively with other women about this issue. Too often, men speak about it far too little — and rarely with women. If you're a man, make it a point to discuss this with women openly, and do your best not to take it personally. If you're a woman, make a point of talking to men about this, doing your best to leave any blame/judgement you may be feeling out of it.   – Dan Kimble, Resonance Executive Coaching

7. Encourage Women to Make the Leap

So many women miss out on great opportunities because they mistakenly believe they are underqualified. Meanwhile, men often go after promotions and projects they are not qualified for. Here is a great opening for companies to help even the playing field: Actively encourage women to take more chances and go for opportunities they desire. External support is great for confidence-building.   – Laura Garnett, Garnett Consulting LLC

8. Build New Roles for Women so Business Can Evolve for the Better

Times have changed and it's time to change "business as usual." Women bring a different and unique perspective to business and we need to celebrate and integrate it. Instead of trying to shove women into the roles that men have been doing for decades, we should be more interested in hiring savvy women to develop new roles and benchmarks for how success is created.   – Brett Baughman, The Brett Baughman Companies, Inc.

9. Stop Pay Disparity and the Gender Gap

In order to promote female equality in the workplace, it must first begin with equal pay. Pay disparity and the gender gap are two of the biggest recurring issues in the workforce, and certainly a catalyst to ongoing class action lawsuits. Paying employees fairly and equally based on experience level, not on gender, is truly the first step needed to properly promote gender equality.   – Wendi Weiner, JD, NCRW, CPRW, CCTC, CCM, The Writing Guru

10. Commit to Three Objectives

Workplace gender dynamics have come a long way since the 1980s, and we have a long way to go. In my opinion, three things could significantly promote gender equality in the workplace:

1. Equal pay for equal work.

2. Childcare options and flexible hours.

3. Outstanding mentoring programs for high potential women leaders.

Companies that commit to these objectives will have a serious competitive advantage.   – Priya Nalkur-Pai, Dr. Priya Nalkur-Pai

11. Start at the Top

For real equality to happen, this requires a shift in organizational culture, which typically starts at the top of the company chain of command. Create a cross-functional team to study the current culture and present to execs what other companies -- competitors and non-competitors alike -- are doing to promote female equality and the positive effects on culture, retention and bottom line.   – Emily Kapit, MS, MRW, ACRW, CPRW, ReFresh Your Step, LLC

12. Have More Options for Women

The disparity in pay generally occurs when a woman decides to start a family. At that point, women may less actively seek more demanding roles due to family obligations. Companies need to create more flexible options for women including telecommuting, job shares and consulting assignments to motivate women and keep financial and professional continuity intact.   – Barbara Safani, Career Solvers

13. Walk It Out in Daily Life

It goes beyond our workplace to our home life, too. What we teach our young girls and women about who they are and how they can contribute starts early. Walking it out in our actions and communications removes fear and creates places for change, including the current workplace.   – Jen Kelchner, TeenTrep.co