Upholding Gender Sensitivity and Awareness Within Your Company 1 year ago

In today’s social climate, being able to navigate through the complicated areas of gender and sexuality within a workplace is paramount to maintaining a healthy environment for all employees.

For too long, respecting one’s gender and sexual identity has never been taken into consideration, much less acknowledged. Individuals have been criticized for their identities, with women and those from the LGBTQIA+ community often discriminated against. 

There have been leaps and bounds to alter the circumstances surrounding this issue, which has enabled many to advance within their chosen careers. For example, the senate passed an act in 2019 known as the Safe Spaces Act to define gender-based sexual harassment in the workplace, among others.

Much of the road leading toward a fully inclusive business environment continues to be left unmarked. Fortunately, there are steps that you, as a business owner or employer, can take to pave the road to better workplace culture. As small as these may seem, they matter chiefly to people who need them the most.

— — — — — 

1) Cultivate a Healthy Workplace Culture

Whether your business is new or has already been established for a long period, you must exert great effort to cultivate a culture within your workplace that does not tolerate stereotypes, discrimination, and harassment, among others. 

Keep in mind the following actions detailed in Article IV of Republic Act No. 11313 (The Safe Spaces Act) as gender-based sexual harassment in the workplace:

• An act or series of acts involving any unwelcome sexual advances, requests, or demand for sexual favors or any act of sexual nature. whether done verbally, physically or through the use of technology such as text messaging or electronic mail This should affect an individual’s employment or education, job performance, or opportunities.

• A conduct of sexual nature and other conduct-based on sex affecting the dignity of a person, which is unwelcome, unreasonable, and offensive to the recipient, whether done verbally, physically, or through the use of technology such as text messaging or electronic mail or through any other forms of information and communication systems.

• A conduct that is unwelcome and pervasive and creates an intimidating, hostile or humiliating environment for the recipient: Provided, That the crime of gender-based sexual harassment may also be committed between peers and those committed to a superior officer by a subordinate (i.e., a teacher by a student, or to a trainer by a trainee).

• Information and communication system refers to a system for generating, sending, receiving, storing, or otherwise processing electronic data messages or electronic documents and includes the computer system or other similar devices by or in which data are recorded or stored and any procedure related to the recording or storage of electronic data messages or electronic documents. 

Be firm in clarifying the repercussions of problematic actions and impose them upon any employee's violation. Apart from being an example to your employees, you must also set in stone policies that encourage camaraderie and discourages actions that harm someone based on their gender and sexual identity. 

Take any complaint filed regarding similar actions seriously. Much like our bodies, cultivating a healthy workplace culture means answering even the slightest discomfort with swift action. 

2) Mind the Gap

There is a chasm that divides the workplace — the gender pay gap. Incomprehensible as it may be for male employees, this is something deeply felt by women who have suffered through it since they were allowed to participate in business activities. 

In an investigation on the current gender pay gap in the Philippine labor market conducted by Gabriel C. Engcong, Daisy Lou Lim-Polestico, Ph.D., Nicky C. Yungco, and John Alfred M. Liwanag, they found that the pay gap against women is at 4.84%.

The Philippines was also rated two places lower this year (2022) than in last year’s Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum (WEF), placing the country 19th out of 146 countries. 

While some have made the argument that wages are subject to meritocracy, that reasoning cannot argue the disparity between the salaries women receive and those of men. It is point-blank discrimination and should be eradicated. 

Fairness should be rooted within your workplace. Look to your employees not based on their gender and sexuality but based on their actions and contributions to the company you build.  

3) Understand the Numbers 

Numbers do not lie. 

Reports such as the State of the Gender Pay Gap Report by Payscale, the Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum (WEF), and the Gender Equality in the Labor Market in the Philippines by the Asian Development Bank shows that gender-based issues continuously persist within the Filipino workplace.

For example, Cabegin and Gaddi (2019) write in a study done for the National Economic and Development Authority, titled ‘Determinants of female labor force participation in the Philippines,’ that part of the reason why there is low labor force participation of Filipino women is due mostly to factors surrounding women being stereotyped to domestic and reproductive roles.

They found that married women are 40% less likely to participate in the labor market, dropping down 44 percentage points upon having three children. 

As a founder or an employer, it is your job to research similar phenomena and to analyze whether the same problems can be found within your workplace environment. 

Look at the statistics. Ask yourself, “What can I do to improve the situation for the company and my employees?” 

4) Take Harsh Actions Against Gender-Based Harassment 

There is no room for excuses. The #MeToo movement did a marvelous job showing that the perpetuation of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape culture within a workplace is mostly due to the fact that those in higher positions let the perpetrators get away with it more often than not. 

In protecting the image of a company by hiding an issue, it festers from within. This then leads to a problematic environment, not conducive to productivity, camaraderie, and progress. 

Do not be afraid to dole out penalties. Article IV, Section 17 & 18 of The Safe Spaces Act, details the duties of employers, employees, and coworkers in response to gender-based sexual harassment.

You, as an employer, are legally bound to undertake the responsibilities in Section 17 to “prevent, deter, or punish the performance of acts of gender-based sexual harassment in the workplace.”

Failure to implement your duties is considered a violation of Article IV, Section 17 and will warrant a fine of no less than PHP 5,000 and no more than PHP 10,000 upon conviction. Meanwhile, failure to act upon reports surrounding gender-based sexual harassment committed in the workplace will also lead to conviction and a fine ranging from PHP 10,000 to PHP 15,000. This is written in Article IV, Section 19 titled ‘Liability of Employers.’

Allow your business to be held accountable in the event of any gender-based sexual harassment in your workplace. Suspensions, salary cuts, and immediate contract terminations are some actions you can take to penalize offenders apart from reporting them to authorized personnel.

5) Turn “Sana All” to “Attainable for All”

In conjunction with what was discussed about minding the pay gap between male and female workers, women also get the shorter stick when it comes to promotions or leadership roles.

Successful female entrepreneurs, the likes of Soccoro Ramos (founder of National Book Store) and Cresida Tueres (founder of Greenwich Pizza), only come by sporadically. Even when they do, they curate their success not under somebody else’s company but by creating their own.

Advancing in one’s career, while a privilege supposedly born out of merit, should be attainable to anyone regardless of gender and sexual identity. 

It is high time that a woman’s or queer person’s aspiration for professional development is more than just a dream but a possibility. For they can be just as intelligent, capable, skillful, and inspiring as their fellow male employees.

— — — — — 

To support the plight of women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community fighting for their rights within and outside a workplace environment, the government has passed laws that you can read up on as an up-and-coming business venturer. 

Three of the most essential laws regarding the topic have been carefully detailed in the following links:

• Republic Act No. 11058 — “An Act Strengthening Compliance with Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Standards and Providing Penalties for Violations Thereof.”

• Republic Act No. 9710 — “An Act Providing for the Magna Carta of Women”

• Republic Act No. 11313 — “An Act Defining Gender-Based Sexual Harassment in Streets, Public Spaces, Online, Workplaces, and Educational or Training Institutions, Providing Protective Measures and Prescribing Penalties Therefor (The Safe Spaces Act)”

Check out more articles from Digest.ph, as well, for upfront pricing, scopes of work, and other legal services.

References:

[1] Republic Act No. 11313 — “An Act Defining Gender-Based Sexual Harassment in Streets, Public Spaces, Online, Workplaces, and Educational or Training Institutions, Providing Protective Measures and Prescribing Penalties Therefor (The Safe Spaces Act)”

[2] GENDER EQUALITY IN THE LABOR MARKET in the Philippines by the Asian Development Bank

[3] On the Gender Pay Gap in the Philippines and the Occupational Placement and Educational Attainment Levels of Men and Women in the Labor Force

[4] Determinants of female labor force participation in the Philippines by Emily Christi A. Cabegin and Rebecca S. Gaddi