Creating an Anti-Sexist Workplace

If you have met our founder, Jessica, for more than 5 seconds, you’ve probably heard how she feels about the inequities of women in the workplace. This issue has been brought to light in the “Shecession” during Covid, but systems that hold women back in their careers have been in place long before the pandemic.

Let’s outline a typical situation. A woman begins a promising career. She and her partner decide to start a family. They walk through what childcare would look like and they realize that in order for them both to work their 9am-6pm corporate jobs their child would be in childcare for about 11 hours per day, or basically almost all of their waking hours. So, the mom decides to work part-time. She goes from making a salary that breaks down to $30/hour to a part-time gig that pays $15. So, not only does she lose the hours of pay from the old job to new, but also makes less each hour. This job also likely is below her skill set, thus delaying her future career goals.

Some women decide not to work because the math on the childcare just doesn’t make sense. And then, when they try to re-enter the workforce 5-10 years later (depending on how many children they have), they almost always find themselves starting at the bottom again. We are not talking about women who have planned to be a stay-at-home mother. We are talking about women who want to work, but do not feel they have a viable option that balances their roles as an employee and a mother. You can see the predicament.

So, what is the solution? At beCAUSE minded we believe anti-sexist employment is the answer.

Here is how we are (and are working toward) becoming an anti-sexist employer.

1. Provide a substantial parental leave. Our 10-year goal is to provide a 6-month parental leave for new parents of biological, foster, or adoptive children. Not only does this allow the parent and child to bond, but also it allows the parent and the company time to figure out how to create a successful reentry after the leave is complete. Many small businesses are not able to offer this right away. That’s true of us at beCAUSE minded. However, we have short term solutions – such as cross-training in various roles to be able to backfill a position for a time if needed – as well as long-term goals we are actively working toward.

2. Create highly skilled part-time positions. After a maternity leave, some parents, most often mothers, decide they can’t do the all-or-nothing full-time positions require. What can employers do in this situation? One solution is to craft a position that is 20-25 hours per week to better line up with the mother’s desire to be more present at home while continuing to provide value to the company. Our founder had success with this system at her first company and saw it promote longevity and loyalty among the women who chose the part-time role.

3. Plan around nursing mothers. New mothers have a physical tie to their child. As an employer, concessions need to be made to allow moms who choose to breastfeed to do so. Sometimes this means that the new mom cannot travel as long as the rest of the group because they do not have enough milk stored up (real life story for our founder). Or maybe their baby won’t take a bottle, so accommodations need to be made for the child and a caretaker to travel with the mother.

4. Offer a solution for childcare. This will level the playing field for male and female employees and will also increase the quality of applicants for open positions. If you are a larger employer, you may consider having on-site childcare for your employees. The simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and often higher level of care offered at employer-sponsored childcare facilities are a huge draw with candidates. For smaller employers, this may mean providing a childcare stipend or allowing alternative work hours to coordinate with a spouse, grandparent, or other caretaker who may be able to provide support outside of the normal work hours.

5. Encourage open lines of communications. They say you should leave your home life at home. But let’s be real – no one can realistically do that. And right now, women disproportionately take on the role of caretaker when a child needs to go to the doctor, their older parent needs someone to drive them to the grocery store, or the school requests a parent/teacher conference. Open the lines of communication to allow women (and men!) to bring concerns about bandwidth or other issues to you. This way you can brainstorm solutions ahead of time, rather than after the situation has escalated.

Equality is one of our core values here at beCAUSE minded and it is interwoven into so many parts of our businesses including which corporate gift suppliers we work with, our HR policies, and even how we price our products (yes, the cost of providing a maternity leave for our employees does factor into how we price our luxury corporate gift boxes). But we believe it is not enough to hire women. We want women to be unleashed to reach their full potential. We want to set the example of what it means to be an anti-sexist employer.

Do you have other ideas on what it means to be an anti-sexist employer? Share them below!