26% of employees believe that they have been discriminated against because of their gender, based on survey findings of SMELoans 2021. It is not an issue exclusive to women as many may think, in fact, both men and women believed that ‘people of the opposing gender get away with more in the workplace,’ when asked what kind of discrimination they were most sensitive to experiencing.

• 28.7 percent of individuals who had encountered gender discrimination had, in their opinion, been passed up for a promotion because of their gender.
• 24% of those surveyed feel they’ve been turned down for a job because of their gender.
• 23.4 percent say that they have been wrongfully dismissed on the basis of their gender.
• 17% thought they had been fired because of their gender.

Both women and men are frustrated at this point in time. There are many women who have suffered abuse, coercion, and dismissal at the hands of their male coworkers, as well as many males who feel oppressed and demonized although they have done nothing to deserve it. However, if men and women perceive each other as foe rather than friends, we won’t be able to move forward.

15% greater financial returns

For an organization to be really diverse and inclusive, it needs to accommodate a wide range of viewpoints and ideas. According to a growing corpus of evidence, diverse and inclusive teams outperform their peers. It has been shown that 15 percent greater financial returns above national industry medians can be seen in companies in the top quartile of gender diversity (Hunt et al., 2021).

Although discrimination is influenced by many sources outside of the workplace such as immediate environment, media and culture there are a few steps businesses can take in order to reduce, and hopefully eliminate, gender bias within their organization:

1. Senior team alignment 
   Ensure that top management is aware of the value of diversity in their organization. In order to create support at the highest levels of the company, there should be a constant sharing of research on the benefits of inclusiveness. Metrics and open reports should be used to hold top executives accountable for diversity in promotion, hiring, and compensation in the workplace. We believe that addressing issues of diversity and inclusion should be a priority for all leaders.
2. Analyse your processes
   By using analytics, it is now possible to discover the causes of inequities in wages and benefits, discriminatory hiring and promotion practices, and other inequities. Workplace diversity efforts should include the use of techniques such as anonymizing resumes and removing bias from training.
3. Make it part of your infrastructure
   Diversity and inclusion should be treated as an integral element of the company’s overall infrastructure like compliance, IT, and security, and it should be practiced by everyone and owned by every line leader. Diversity and inclusion is a business obligation, not an HR responsibility.
4. Consider where you operate
   Consider global differences: As more firms become global, geographic diversity becomes increasingly crucial. Regional differences in diversity and inclusion difficulties, as well as regional differences in the interests and concerns of employees, are almost certain.

References
SMELoans. (2021, October 4). Gender discrimination in the Workplace Statistics 2021 (UK). SME Loans. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.smeloans.co.uk/blog/gender-discrimination-in-the-workplace/.

Hunt, V., Layton, D., & Prince, S. (2021, March 12). Why diversity matters. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/why-diversity-matters.