91888 THE WORLD BANK Setting International Standards for Gender Equality in the Private Sector The Gender Equity Model SYNOPSIS The World Bank's Gender Equity Model (GEM) aims to promote gender equity in the private sector by building on a series of good practices in four key areas: recruitment, career development, family-work balance, and sexual harassment policies. By facilitating greater diversity and higher worker motivation, the model has had the added bonus of increasing the productivity and reputations of parti cipating firms, for example in Mexico, where 90 percent of participating organizations reported that workers’ perfo r- mance and productivity have increased. Challenge Egypt, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Turkey. The re- Despite laws that prohibit sex-based discrimination, sults have been extremely positive, not only on women continue to be at a disadvantage in the gender equality at the workplace, but also on busi- workplace. In Latin America, for example, sexist ness productivity thanks to enhanced gender diver- language is still widely used; women remain absent sity and a more motivated workforce. from some sectors; and the presence of female workers is often neglected in designing facilities (for Implementation of GEM involves a partnership example many establishments lack separate restrooms between the government and the participating com- for men and women). Globally, women earn less than pany/ organization. The government provides train- their male counterparts in the same positions in almost ing and technical assistance to facilitate the imple- all countries and face unique obstacles in their ascent mentation of GEM; the company commits to im- to decision-making positions. To address this situation, plement specific changes based on the model guide- the World Bank has developed a model that lines. Before a certification firm conducts the as- encourages gender equity in private and public firms. sessment process, the government conducts a pre- liminary audit to ensure that the company is ready for certification. The World Bank provides technical Approach assistance to the executing government agency aimed at incorporating best practices based on in- Since 2001, the World Bank has supported the ternational experience. Gender Equity Model (GEM), a firm certification process for gender equity that promotes quality Firms adopt the model voluntarily during a four standards in key areas of industrial relations, such as stage certification process comprising: selection and hiring processes, training policies, pr o- fessional development, family-work balance and the 1) self-assessment to identify cultural barriers prevention, handling, and follow-up of cases of sex- and gender gaps; ual harassment. This public-private partnership in- 2) action plan design and implementation; itiative was designed and tested in Mexico in 2003 3) pre-auditing, auditing, and certification and replicated or adapted in Argentina, Chile, (Gender Equity Seal). April 2012 2 STANDARDS FOR GENDER EQUALITY IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR and women. Results from the pilot in Argentina in- Results clude:  Commitment to gender equity is explicit in the In Mexico , the GEM Initiative, run by the National companies’ policies (human resource management). Institute for Women (Inmujeres), has now been in  Elimination of discriminatory practices in per- place for nine years. As of December 2010, some sonnel selection and hiring practices. 300 Mexican organizations had been certified as  Training programs specifically targeting men gender equitable and an average of 63 firms per an- and women are linked to existing opportunities num continue to adopt the program. The program in the workplace. has benefitted 300,000 employees, 55 percent from  Adoption of special strategies for promoting the private sector, 44 percent from the public sec- female access to management positions and en- tor, and 1 percent from nongovernmental organiza- couraging female leadership in general. tions (NGOs). Some results from the pilot in Mex-  Benefits for work-family balance for both men ico include: and women.  Incorporation of mechanisms for addressing  Participating firms have eliminated pregnancy cases of sexual harassment and promoting a discrimination from recruitment practices. respectful working environment.  Ninety 90 percent of participating organizations reported that workers’ performance and pro d- Bank Contribution uctivity have increased.  Firms have reported 50 percent reduced gender The Bank has provided: gaps, and the increased promotion of women to managerial positions.  Mexico GEM: US$3,070,000 (IBRD Learning  Measures have also been taken to improve the and Innovation Loan) work-life balance of men and women alike.  Egypt GEM: US$250,000 (Development Grant These measures include flexible hours, and the Facility) engagement of families in the com pany’s gender  Argentina GEM: US$57,000 (Technical Assis- equity activities. tance-Non-lending)  Chile GEM: US$52,000 (Technical Assistance- In Egypt, 10 firms based in the Greater Cairo area Non-lending) participated in GEM. As a result of GEM, compa- nies have institutionalized gender equality training, Partners developed gender-sensitive human resources poli- cies and codes of conduct, and advertised their The Bank has worked with partners such as the commitment to the program on their websites and United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the in other marketing materials. The impact evaluation Empowerment of Women (formerly UNIFEM), the points to the program’s positive effect on some a s- International Center for Research on Women, and pects of employee satisfaction as well as on em- various government agencies including Instituto ployees’ perception of their firm’s commitment to Nacional por la Xenofobia, la Discriminación y el gender equity. Racismo (INADI) (Argentina); Servicio Nacional de la Mujer (SERNAM) (Chile); Comité de Equidad de In Argentina , the GEM principles have been Género (Colombia); Instituto Nacional de las Mu- adopted to develop the Argentinean Gender Equity jeres (Inmujeres) (Mexico); and the General Author- Model (MEGA 2009), tested in a pilot program led ity for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) (Egypt). by the Argentinean National Anti-Discrimination Institute (Instituto Nacional contra la Discriminación , INADI). The pilot ended successfully with the certi- Moving Forward fication of nine companies, both multinational and domestic; it benefited 21,000 workers, among men Gender certification is becoming a recognized in- strument to promote gender equity in the private WORLD BANK RESULTS 3 sector. Other countries have adopted the World ticular. Proponents of such a measure cite the series Bank’s GEM and adaptations of the model are in of International Organization for Standardization place in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Repub- (ISO) quality standards as an example of how this lic, and Turkey. Chile has followed Mexico’s lead in might work. In addition, the model needs to be adopting the GEM as public policy. strengthened at the post-certification stage, focusing on areas where changes are more difficult to One potential area of work to move this type of achieve, such as salary equalization and affirmative model forward is the standardization of gender eq- action to promote women’s access to managerial uity seals that would allow for international com par- positions. isons and would benefit international firms in par- LEARN MORE GEM Model – http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTLAC/Resources/257803 - 1269390034020/EnBreve_159_English_Printable.pdf – http://pslforum.worldbankgroup.org/docs/100521GEM.pdf Multimedia – Egypt Gender Equity Model Podcast