WEGO labelling model
The active role of companies in supporting women through their way out of intimate partner violence
In recent years, attention to gender equality within companies has gradually established itself as a concept linked to a better business organisation and better quality of work. Implementing equal opportunities in work settings therefore means not only countering the different forms of discrimination that can affect women in these areas, but also introducing an overall improvement of the entire organisational structure and productivity.
The approach to gender discrimination in work settings has so far mainly focused on women’s access and working conditions (e.g., hiring and training obstacles, career paths’ limits, work-life balance difficulties, gender pay gap). Gender-based harassment and sexual harassment affecting women at the workplace has started to be addressed, but still to a very limited extent. Forms of violence against women outside their workplace, namely domestic or intimate partner violence (IPV)[1], have rarely been considered as aspects to deal with in work settings. But a framework of widespread responsibility calls on all economic and social actors to cooperate for job inclusion, and the socio-economic empowerment of those people who are more penalised by the economic system. Companies can play an important role in combating IPV, providing – when possible – more job opportunities for women survivors of IPV and creating an equal and safe working environment.
Institutions or other actors can greatly contribute to creating a safe and fair workplace while also addressing gender-based violence (GBV) through the implementation of certification schemes and awards that reward companies for complying with high gender equality standards.
Currently, the available schemes mainly cover issues concerning gender equality and women’s working conditions, whereas gender-based harassment and sexual harassment at the workplace are topics poorly addressed. Violence against women outside the workplace and its individual, social, and economic consequences are not taken into consideration at all.
Indeed, such programmes should provide specific recommendations for continuous learning so that companies design and formalise practices and policies aimed at gender equality, inclusion and respect of people’s rights, including action against GBV and support for IPV survivors.
Given this scenario, the WEGO!2 project certainly represents an innovative instance because it specifically includes the issue of gender-based violence in the certification scheme for companies, namely “WEGO! Labelling Model”.
The WEGO labelling model: Scope and structure
IRS designed the project’s labelling model to be implemented in four European countries, i.e. Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, and Spain, to provide companies with a self-assessment tool to identify strengths, opportunities, and areas for improvement in their gender policies, programmes, and initiatives. The tool consists of a questionnaire, to be filled in by a company’s representative, to identify the company’s practices, culture, and awareness on gender-related issues. After collecting all required information, the company can assess its own gender-related framework and receive recommendations for further improvement.
The questionnaire consists of three sections:
- Gender equality at work, to assess gender balance in the leadership position, training and career support; flexibility; equal compensation, benefits and services.
- Corporate culture and work environment, to evaluate the degree of respect of gender equality principles, people’s rights and diversities.
- Gender-based violence against women, to measure the general engagement towards gender-based violence, the prevention of and fight against gender-based harassment and sexual harassment at work; and the support of IPV survivors.
The evaluation of the company’s state-of-the-art is based on a five-star rating system:
- The one-star label indicates that the company implements some actions to tackle the issues of gender equality at the workplace, but many improvements are highly recommended especially to address GBV
- The five-star label is achieved when a company showed an excellent, specific, deep and solid awareness on the topics of gender equality at work, the company’s culture and GBV victim support, and all the practices are formalised within the company’s regulation and codes.
The questionnaire was tested in 10 companies located in the four project partner countries.
Overall, the companies have a good coverage of gender equality at work-related issues. In particular, the companies performed well for flexibility at work, meaning that practices and policies for facilitating the reconciliation between work and private life are quite widespread. Most companies provide ethical codes to promote diversity, inclusion, and gender equality through ad hoc rules or policies. More than half of the companies have a formalised reporting system to address gender discrimination at work. A positive level of awareness on gender-specific issues at work was registered in all companies, except for GBV matters that are still greatly neglected.
As to the rating, four companies obtained the one-star label, three the two-star label, two the three-star label, and one company the four-star label. No company got the highest five-star label.
Such diverse scores mirror not only the level of engagement of the tested companies but also their different sizes and capacities. Most of all, the results of the assessment highlight the overall lack of awareness on GBV related-issues within and outside the world of work due to the poor public debate and awareness-raising campaigns on the topic. There is still too little knowledge about the fundamental role that a wide range of actors and stakeholders can play in supporting the socio-economic empowerment of IPV victims. The widely shared opinion that the only way out of gender-based violence solely involves affected women and anti-violence centres should be overcome and a more integrated perspective should be adopted. Indeed, the way out of IPV needs cooperation among institutions, NGOs, social services, and private sector stakeholders too. Companies might redefine their role, taking active steps to generate a positive impact on their employees, their family, and society.
Against this background, the final rating of WEGO! Labelling Model is not to be considered as an achieved target but as a starting point to implement better practices and actions also in cooperation with other stakeholders so to achieve a higher standard of gender equality, respect for diversity, GBV prevention and IPV survivors’ support.
The recently started WEGO3! Project will further strengthen this innovative methodology to ensure that women workers fully access their rights, including that of living a life free of violence and discrimination at work and outside.
[1] In many countries the term ‘intimate partner violence’ is included under ‘domestic violence’ – a more general term, since it refers to partner violence, but it can also encompass child or elder abuse, or abuse by any member of a household or relationship. The WEGO project specifically focuses on interventions to support survivors of IPV, and the two terms are used interchangeably in this document as forms of gender-based violence.