This International Women’s Day, the theme is #breakthebias:
A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that's diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated.
At Equals Money, we pride ourselves in the forward progress we’re making when it comes to celebrating and supporting women within our workforce. International Women’s Day describes the three pillars of “#breakthebias” as “Celebrate women's achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality”. Equals is taking active steps towards celebrating the invaluable contributions of women to the company, evaluating our own responsibility to make the world a more equitable place for all genders, and working to improve the position of women in the company.
In the past two years alone, we’ve shown forward progress in terms of gender demographics. In 2019, 29% of our workforce was female, and at the end of 2021, that number had risen to 32%. We’ve also made a point to internally promote women and improve the number of women in our senior leadership team. In 2019, 22% of our SLT was female, and at the the end of 2021, that number had risen to 45%.
We’re doing better than many. Compared to figures taken from an Equileap report, Equals has more women both in the overall workforce and in senior leadership team positions than the average British company.
Part of our goal to continue to bring more women into leadership positions and the workforce in general is to create a working environment that encourages gender equality. As just a few steps of many, we’ve introduced menopause support and offer flexible arrangements for working parents in addition to enhanced maternity and paternity leave. We want to create an environment where women not only feel comfortable but encouraged to thrive.
“While working at Equals, I've been pregnant, on maternity leave and returned back to work full time. Balancing family life and my career is challenging in many ways. Having flexible working arrangements, both before and during the pandemic, has made the world of difference.” – Kat Cluett, Lead Product UX Designer
In addition to the positive steps we’ve taken towards gender equality in the workplace, Equals acknowledges that there is always more to go. For instance, our executive team and board remain male-dominated. We have the opportunity to improve, and the work we’ve been doing is only the beginning and one step of many towards improving gender equality both within our own workplace and in the bigger world.
“We take great pride in the contributions and achievements of all employees at Equals, regardless of gender. It’s for this reason that the position of women in the workplace is of great importance to us. As a company, we acknowledge and understand the challenges facing women and commit ourselves to investing in the positive forward movement of gender equality both within our company and in our greater community. For example, we’ve recently introduced support for menopause and offer flexible arrangements for working parents. While our journey towards true equality is anything but finished, we’re excited to continue building.” - Ian Strafford-Taylor, CEO
Equals Money is committed to bettering ourselves and creating a more diverse and inclusive work environment for all. Want to learn more about life at Equals and our company culture?
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