The workplace is a key site of societal inclusion. For most people, work is the primary source of income and core to living an independent economically-secure life. Work (paid and unpaid) is typically core to a meaningful life. Most people spend many, many hours at work: As much as a third of every day. Workplace discrimination, therefore, hampers a vital source of well-being and, for most people, life satisfaction both for the individual and for their family / dependents.
Gendelity – What Are We About?
Our Vision: Workplaces that enable and encourage full and effective participation, and equal opportunities for leadership, i.e. influential decision-making.
Gendelity is dedicated to helping individuals and organizations take practical action to move organizations towards workplace inclusion. The goal of feminism is to ‘liberate everyone from the constraints of patriarchy’ (bell hooks). Women are not a minority group yet are underrepresented at all levels of team and organizational decision-making: This is called the Vertical Gender Gap, too few women in leadership and management roles. Men too have more to contribute as we work towards workplace gender inclusion, and particularly men have more to contribute to the care of their children, to household management, and to family management. We all benefit from changes that enable inclusive perspectives. And inclusive perspectives lead to better outcomes for business and families, particularly children.
To create better workplaces and a better society for all, we need to address the obstacles preventing women and under-represented minorities from fully contributing and reaching their potential at work. Our work, and your support, aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 8. SDG 5 relates to gender equality & women’s empowerment. SDG 8 relates to sustained, inclusive and sustainable employment & decent work Economic empowerment provides financial security and opportunity, and contributes to inclusive decision making.
Gendelity is a combination of the words: ‘gender’ and ‘equality‘.
Gendelity’s Mission
Support organizations and individuals to improve workplace inclusion and develop an inclusive labour market
by developing and delivering evidenced-based services and supports
in order to contribute to the economic and decision-making power of women and under-represented groups, ultimately contributing to societal inclusion and equality.
Workplace inclusion is core to social inclusion. Women have more to contribute in decision-making roles. Men too can contribute. This is Sustainable Development Goal 5.5. Further, equal pay for equal work is simply a matter of fairness: Employees expect their employers to be fair and honest.
Gendelity’s Organizational Values – How We Work
1. Think and act holistically and systemically: Consider the interactions of people and organizational processes.
Organizations are structured with various roles, different responsibilities, and the power to direct, evoke and resource various undertakings. It is within the structure of the organization that each of us act individually. Structures may be formal or informal, stated or unstated. Structures govern and constrain individual actions. Actions for organizations are important to affect scalable change.
2. Approach organizational change inclusively: Change is a people game.
Change happens. It can neither be willed nor prevented but we all ‘affect’ change; the kinds of change and the direction. Doing nothing is a choice. For too long, the emphasis has been on ‘fitting in’ rather than reshaping workplaces so everyone can contribute to organizational goals and flourish. We are here to help you individually, and together with your teams with this difficult but possible endeavour.
3. Include stakeholders: With involvement comes commitment.
Given the right awareness (motivation), incentives (motivation / opportunities), and practical skills / capabilities, almost everyone acts inclusively almost all the time.
Cooperating with, and contributing to like-minded others enriches perspective and enables collective action. As a member of WITS, who envisage a “society where women have equal opportunities, experiences & recognition in STEM”, and as a member of NWC, National Women’s Council of Ireland, we support changes that lead to improved economic inclusion and enablement.
Change is experienced individually, and undertaken by individuals acting together or alone. No-one has only a single identity trait. We are all made up of our backstory, our biology, our life biography, and our own behaviour. These identities intersect creating different patterns of privilege and discrimination that influence individual outcomes. An individual act can make a tremendous difference to another individual, or indeed may inspire others. Sociologists refer to the concept of ‘agency‘ as; the space that individuals have (no matter how expansive or limited) to act, ‘self-propelled action’ or your ‘capacity to act’. Without individual action, there is no collective change. So actions for individuals, that is, exercising the ‘agency’ that we all have, is a key aspect of our undertakings. Our goal is grow your ‘agency’, your capacity to act. You make a difference: We can help.
4. Follow the principles of social enterprises.
Following the principles of social enterprise, any profits/surpluses are re-invested in improving courses, training and services to help achieve a social objective, i.e. workplace inclusion. In keeping with our non-profit aims, we chose ‘dot Org’, which was originally intended for non-profit entities, thus Gendelity.org.
“an enterprise that trades for a social / societal purpose, where at least part of its income is earned from its trading activity, is separate from government, and where the surplus is primarily reinvested in the social objective.”
National Social Enterprise Policy for Ireland 2024-2027
Gendelity’s Broadscale Impact Metrics
Our efforts contribute to the following:
- The SDG indicator SDG 5.5.2 (imperfectly) measures “Proportion of Women in Managerial Positions”.
- Gender Pay Gap is another measure of (in)equality which is largely driven by the inflated number of men in senior decision-making roles, the vertical gender gap, but also incorporate many other aspects including discrimination. The most recent (unadjusted) National Irish Gender Pay Gap for Ireland (report Oct 2023) was 9.6%.
- Within SDG 8, target 8.5 is about “full and productive employment and decent work for all … and equal pay for work of equal value”. The following relevant indicators, which focus on one category of under-represented groups, are:
- SDG 8.5.1 measures “Average hourly earnings of female and male employees, by occupation, age and persons with disabilities”
- SDG 8.5.2 measures “Unemployment rate, by sex, age and persons with disabilities”.