The 2025 theme of accelerate action, how do we increase the speed of change?
This is a big question which many organisations and individuals are trying to solve – and unfortunately there isn’t one silver-bullet that will answer this.
Whilst there are specific recommended guidelines from the Women in Finance Charter (of which Canada Life is a signatory of), I’ll share a couple of my key learnings from the past year – rather than repeat their advice!
Gender parity is an everyone conversation – not just women.
A recent King’s College* study revealed that 56% of men thought that gender equity has gone too far. This is concerning data, as many men are in positions to hire and promote women. If they are feeling as though ‘things have gone too far,’ how can change be expected to happen at all, let alone at pace?
Whilst it might not sound revolutionary, I believe that engaging our male colleagues in the conversation, and meaningfully, can help to contribute positively to gender balance. Not just expecting male colleagues to be allies either. Simply put, women don’t need to be fixed, but authentic male engagement and support is fundamental to the cause too.
For IWD 2024, you pledged to ‘try to inspire others about inclusion’, what are your reflections on the past 12 months and your hopes for the next?
Hearing the statistics that 56% of men think gender equity has gone too far, really spurred me to think about what Balance (our colleague gender network) can do to help inspire a more inclusive environment and involve male colleagues in our gender equity journey at Canada Life. Aside from voicing the importance of this in various forums, as a network, we also partnered with the company, Men for Inclusion, to run a workshop for 15 of our colleagues which has helped to start a conversation around accelerating gender inclusion.
As a network we also explored supporting the awareness events – National Inclusion Week and International Day of Allyship – on our network platforms. Allyship and Inclusion are essential for advancing gender equality.
Would I have liked to have done more though? Absolutely. Whilst the theme for IWD this year is different, I will aim to make even more of a conscious effort to inspire others about inclusion in 2025 and beyond.
What are the Balance network doing to support colleagues at Canada Life?
Without revealing too much, the main activity we’re working on is to help colleagues feel more empowered this year. We’re involving our wider network on Viva Engage to feedback what they would like to learn about or work on within the general theme of empowerment, to make sure we are answering a specific need.
I’m keen to hear more from our colleagues to understand where we can help them further. I think we’ve made a good start by thinking about how we can contribute to gender equity and create an inclusive environment, but I think there is more to be done in terms of listening to what is important to our network, and exploring how Balance can be helpful.
* https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/nearly-half-of-britons-say-womens-equality-has-gone-far-enough
