Accelerating Action for Women Makes Good Business Sense
INSIGHT - HELEN BLAKE
International Women’s Day has been around for over 100 years, celebrating women’s achievements, raising awareness around discrimination and encouraging people to act towards gender parity.
As a woman business leader, I have seen incredible progress, with more women breaking barriers in business, politics, and science……. But women still face significant challenges, even in 2025. The facts are:
The Gender Pay Gap Still Exists. Women continue to earn less than men for the same work, and in many industries, progress remains slow.
Leadership Representation Remains Unequal. In the world’s largest companies, women still hold only a fraction of executive and boardroom positions.
Bias, Stereotypes, and Cultural Barriers Persist. Many workplaces still struggle to create truly inclusive environments where women can thrive.
The last twelve months has seen the world in upheaval, turmoil and change. War, trade tariff battles, changes in country leadership, AI, you name it, it’s been going on.
So, reflecting on the year, doing research and thinking about what I have observed and experienced, I’ve got to say that it certainly has not been all roses for women at work.
I think there has been some ‘Diversity Wash’ – where companies have just paid lip service to one-off initiatives like Pride Day or International Women’s Day. Employees are getting tired of what they experience as tokenism. In other news, some notable companies have announced they are ditching their Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (‘EDI’) policies.
EDI is Being Politicised and this is Worrying
External stakeholders, including political ones, have a legitimate interest in how well-run a company is. Factors that support, or are indicative of, failures in compliance, ethics and ultimately economic success are of key interest to politicians, regulators, shareholders, investors and wider markets. EDI is not a ‘magic bullet’ on its own for a business, but it has been a strong indicator of a well-managed, successful company. Well-managed diversity is linked to financial out-performance, and culture is now established as a vital element of ethical and exceptional service. EDI is a key building block to the type of business most stakeholders, especially customers and employees, want to engage with.
I personally believe EDI is the ‘right thing to do’ because it’s about decency and fairness, and as such choose to run my business, Futurecurve, in a way that supports these values.
And the great news is that a good number of company chief executives have come out to reinforce their commitment to diversity, because they view it as simply demonstrating good corporate values and the right way to treat people is as equals.
I would love us to move away from the binary arguments that seem to be prevailing right now. By binary, I mean, win/lose, either/or, women versus men - polarised extremes. Women in the workplace discussions need to be contextual, nuanced, and require spectrum thinking – gradients of possibilities and options, not right/wrong kneejerk responses.
The Importance of Including Men in the Debate
To help with this spectrum thinking approach, men need to be part of the debate. By including men, everyone can learn, everyone benefits, and it does away with the binary men v women arguments.
Men have a vital role to play in advancing women and fostering inclusion. The indisputable fact is that men hold the majority of leadership roles, so men’s active participation and support is essential.
What practically can men do in their workplace to support female colleagues?
Men – as sponsors, mentors and allies, can take simple actions like sharing the kind of jobs that need to be done but won’t get you a promotion or pay rise. Things like making or getting the coffees. Ordering the lunch. Note-taking in meetings. Instigate a rota system for everyone; take it in turns and move these jobs away from being seen as ‘a women’s job’ and turn it simply into a task to be done by the next person on rota.
If there is a prevalent attitude in the workplace that some tasks are ‘women’s jobs’, those in a managerial or supervisory role must break this unspoken ‘code’. The psychological pressure is huge for women to volunteer for these tasks, instead, managers must actively pick someone based on whose turn it is.
For too long, gender equality has been seen as a "women’s issue"—but that is not the case. Diversity benefits everyone. We need male allies in leadership roles who:
Advocate for equal pay and equal opportunities.
Challenge unconscious bias when they see it.
Mentor and sponsor talented women, ensuring they have a path to leadership.
Call out “micro-aggressions” when they seem them
A truly inclusive workplace isn’t just built by women—it’s built by all of us.
Accelerating Action for Women Makes Good Business Sense
Extensive research from McKinsey, Deloitte, Forbes, Harvard Business Review and other leading analysts shows that companies with mixed teams quite simply out-perform non-diverse companies. Here are a few reasons why:
You get increased innovation because mixed teams tend to generate more creative solutions and ideas due to a wider range of perspectives and experiences
Decision-making improves because exposure to different viewpoints leads to better decision-making processes and reduces blind spots and biases
The company gets greater market reach because companies with diverse teams are better positioned to understand and cater to a broader customer base, potentially capturing new markets
The company gets higher levels of employee engagement because inclusivity is shown to boost morale, satisfaction and retention
If a company gains a reputation for attracting and retaining women, then you’re going to attract a wider pool of top candidates.
Research by Forbes says that decisions made and executed by gender diverse teams deliver 60% better results, and inclusive teams make better business decisions 87% of the time.
McKinsey research shows that companies with high levels of women in their leadership teams are significantly more likely to outperform their industry peers financially, with the top quartile for diversity demonstrating a 35% higher likelihood of above-average returns. In the same research, it highlighted that companies with fewer than 20% of women at executive level reported either declining, flat, or, at best, slow profitability, with a 48% performance differential between the most and least gender-diverse companies.
Accelerating Action
Everyone benefits from better performance and better customer outcomes, here are some things that are proving effective in organisations:
1) Making deliberates steps to cut down on bias in hiring and performance reviews by doing things like:
Anonymising personal information, such as names, gender and age, when recruiting
Employee training in bias and allyship, especially for those people responsible for recruitment
For performance reviews, establishing clear evaluation criteria upfront and measuring employees accordingly
Designing evaluation tools to gather objective, measurable inputs and outcomes for each employee
2) Viewing gender diversity as a strategic priority, with leaders showing commitment to tracking measures and communicating frequently through a variety of channels about the progress being made around diversity efforts and the impact on the business
3) Embedding a diversity culture by helping employees understand the ‘why’. When people understand why it is important to encourage women’s progress, then there is a reason for everyone to engage. Telling stories and illustrating what employees have to gain personally, for example by explaining that everyone has a better chance of getting promoted when there are practices in place to make promotions fair or point out how women’s efforts have let to improvements that support everyone, such as flexible working.
Diversity is proven to drive success:
Mid-market businesses with more women in senior management are more profitable, a key finding by Grant Thornton’s Women in Business 2024 report
A diverse workforce fuels innovation. When different perspectives come together, we create stronger, smarter solutions to today’s challenges
Organisations that prioritise gender diversity attract and retain top talent. People want to work for companies that value inclusion, and customers want to support businesses that reflect their values.
Accelerate action for a healthier working environment – for ourselves and others. Let’s focus and drive forward on collaboration, inclusion, ally-ship because it means every single person, and the company itself, wins.
Who doesn’t want that?!