#39: The path to gender equity

How you can be part of driving the change

Hi! Sophia and Lisa here 👋

We work on the FAIR SHARE of Women Leaders international campaign. We're taking over Pass It On this week to share how you can help us increase intersectional gender equity in the social impact sector.

We need more women leaders

Everyone in the social impact sector is working towards a more peaceful and equal world. A world where everyone has:

• basic needs met

• opportunities to take part in decisions that affect them

• space to express themselves safely

But we aren't walking the talk. Especially when it comes to women.

Women make up most of the social impact sector workforce but are still underrepresented at the leadership level. Our data showed men are twice as likely to get promoted.

As long as the sector isn't walking the talk on gender equity:

• Women aren't receiving equal economic and leadership opportunities

• We aren't making use of all available talent, skills, and knowledge

• Valuable perspectives are missing in decision-making spaces

• Others won't see our sector as a credible actor for change

Data is our tool for change

That's why FAIR SHARE of Women Leaders exists and why we built the FAIR SHARE Monitor. To help the social impact sector achieve gender equity faster.

To achieve this mission, we have to hold the sector accountable. We do this by generating continuous data on the proportion of women on staff and in leadership positions. In doing so, we provide clear-cut evidence of the need for change. Here's how it works:

Once a year, we invite organisations to take part in the Monitor. Participating organisations share the number of women on staff and in leadership positions. They also share equivalent data on Black, Brown, Indigenous women, and women of colour. Soon, we will capture data beyond the gender binary as well.

Some organisations get back to us; some don't. In the latter case, we research the data for them based on information available on their website. We then send this to them for confirmation. If the organisation doesn't confirm the data, we publish it stating the source of the research. You can't ghost us to avoid accountability.

Once we've analysed all the data, we produce a ranking according to the FAIR SHARE Index. This index measures the gap between the proportion of women on staff and the proportion of women in leadership. We call this the "representation gap." The lower the score, the better. "0" is the best possible ranking. 

Non-profits, you can be part of the change

First thing first: find out if you're on this year's ranking.

Not listed

If you're a well-known international org, we want to hear from you. Tell your HR or Diversity Officer about the FAIR SHARE Monitor. Encourage them to contact us about next year's cycle. 

Listed

What do you think of the results? Why not invite the entire team to reflect on the numbers? It's the perfect opportunity to discuss opportunities for improvement. Our Agenda for Change provides prompts and exercises to guide that conversation.

Listed but missing the green checkmark

Organisations with the green checkmark have made the FAIR SHARE Commitment. The Commitment is a pledge to achieve gender equity in your leadership by 2030 and share annual data with us for the Monitor. Ask your HR lead or executives to look into it!

Feminist Leadership is for everyone

Feminist Leadership is about transforming the unequal power relations in our workplaces. Achieving that transformation starts by reflecting on your culture.

• Who's getting the chance to take on leadership roles?

• Whose voices dominate meetings? Who sits silently?

• What are the power dynamics like? How could they shift?

We've created a rich library of resources on Feminist Leadership. Topics range from collective leadership to authenticity and accountability. Check them out, share them with your team, and see if they can spark the change you feel is needed.

Get going, then get good

You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Instead, learn from your peers who have already tested new approaches. Our latest publication Leading for Change is a great place to start. It shows how ten organisations are aligning their external goals with their internal ways of working. For more inspiration, check out the full publication.

And don't get stuck in analysis paralysis. Progress requires action:

"Our primary advice is to start. If we had waited until we had assessed every nuance of our recruitment, hiring, management, salary-setting, promotion, leave, and other policies so that we could unveil a comprehensive overhaul, we would not have made any changes yet!"

— Traci Baird and Maxine Somerville, EngenderHealth

Change is not only a numbers game. Gender data makes us accountable, and Feminist Leadership helps us take action. Together, they can transform the social impact sector into a more inclusive and effective workplace.

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Do you hold tech expertise or identify as a member of a marginalised community? Help us make the Monitor a more intersectional tool! On the tech side specifically, we’re looking for developers to help us create more automated workflows for data collection, import, analysis, and visualisation.

Get in touch via monitor@fairsharewl.org 💌