This Sunday, March 8 is International Women’s Day, an opportunity to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women across the globe and advocate for further progress toward gender equality. Each year, our Women’s Leadership Network brings our people at West Monroe together demonstrate our commitment to gender equality and spur conversation. This year’s IWD theme is Each for Equal, drawn from the notion of ‘collective individualism.’ We are all parts of a whole. Our individual actions, conversations, behaviors and mindsets can have an impact on our larger society. Because of this, equality is not just a gender issue—it’s a business issue. Gender equality is essential for economies and communities to thrive. West Monroe’s Women’s Leadership Network (WLN) is an employee resource group that helps our own community of women thrive. We work with the entire firm to foster an inclusive culture and work toward equality. In this spirit, we asked people across the firm to respond to the theme of “Each for Equal.” Read what they had to say.
Career Resource
Celebrating International Women’s Day 2020 at West Monroe: Each for equal
March 06, 2020
I would encourage everyone to create at least one goal this year that promotes and supports equality in the workplace – explore books on this topic, take Exploring Bias training, get involved with I&D, review our thoughtware, or attend a meetup! These activities can help us recognize our own biases and identify new perspectives.
Be an ally in general, and a mentor specifically. Take time to understand from a female perspective what you, as an individual, can do to be better when it comes to inclusion and taking a “gender-neutral” perspective.
Equality means the ability to have the same opportunity to create the life that you want to have. For this to take life, people must be aware of the barriers that exist in accessing and taking advantage of the opportunity, whether they be gender, race or social reasons.
Equality means the ability to have the same opportunity to create the life that you want to have. For this to take life, people must be aware of the barriers that exist in accessing and taking advantage of the opportunity, whether they be gender, race or social reasons.
One of the most impactful actions I’ve taken is to simply promote the concept of extending ladders to those around and below you instead of focusing on the ladder above you. Give more opportunities to more people, reward those that deliver, build a team and they will push you up.
I’m a huge fan of reading. I recently noticed that majority of the books that I read are published by white cisgender American or European males. So I’ve now started making an effort to seek out books published by women and men from different parts of the world so I can broaden my perspective.