São Paulo - Despite the gap between men and women in corporate structures, the document, Companies' Commitment to Upgrading Women, launched on Wednesday (1) by the Ethos Institute of Corporate Social Responsibility, revealed that few organizations - only 3% of the sample - have clear policies to promote gender equality, including programs to reduce salary differences and specific professional training programs to enhance women's qualifications, according to Luci Ayala, editor of the publication.

"Many companies are concerned with assuring equal conditions among their employees. But it appears to us that, in some sense, equal treatment for people with unequal starting points doesn't change this basic situation and even contributes to the reproduction of inequality," says Ayala. For her, "it is essential that commitments to gender equality integrate companies' strategic action plans, since this is the only way to define goals and programs and evaluate results, for it to become, in fact, part of companies' lives. Tools exist for this to come about."

These tools are presented in the guide prepared for the manual. The guide presents a set of proposals for organizations that wish to implant or intensify their policies of social responsibility, contributing to the strengthening of women and the promotion of equal opportunities for members of both genders.

According to Ayala, the first step is to size up the real situation of the company, through an internal census or some other form of survey to determine the proportions of men and women who hold jobs in the company and who occupy executive positions, differences in salaries and career paths, and female participation in training policies. An internal census allows the company to discern gender-based reality in actual practice, as well as race relations.

The Ethos Institute suggests that the next step is for the company to establish a corporate social responsibility platform of actions, covering six topics: 1) A public commitment to equal opportunities for men and women; 2) An assessment of the gender situation; 3) A policy to promote equality for employees; 4) Policies for health, welfare, and protection against violence; 5) Commitments to the community; 6) Policies for the business chain.

The manual asserts that the best way to promote equality between men and women is to guarantee that salary, hiring, and promotion policies eliminate all possibilities of discrimination and stereotypes related to the gender, race, and color of employees. Adopting health, security, and welfare policies for women who work in the company is also part of the effort to construct gender equality. This means establishing day-care centers, facilitating medical treatment and care, guaranteeing security during pregnancy, encouraging responsible fatherhood, preventing all forms of violence, and prohibiting discrimination.

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Fabiana Uchinaka
Translator: David Silberstein
09/03/2004