This year’s International Women’s Day campaign themed #EmbraceEquity underscores the need to distinguish between equity and equality – two terms often used interchangeably. Every March 8, as observed by the United Nations since 1975, the world highlights women’s rights and this year, the IWD 2023 #EmbraceEquity campaign theme seeks to help drive worldwide conversations around equity and its impact, whilst encouraging support on why “equal opportunities are no longer enough” – and can in fact be exclusionary, rather than inclusive.
Equality advocates that everyone or group of people are given the same resources or opportunities while on the other hand, equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances, and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.
Simply put, women should not only be given an equal chance, but their capacity and reality should also be considered to truly be fair – a philosophy that has been driving the Standard Chartered Bank’s business operations over the years.
Indeed, the business landscape has evolved in the last decade and more so, corporates are aligning and being intentional about their policies around diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI), a three-pronged practice that complements Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) for long-term sustainability.
Year on Year, we continue to improve on our prior strides around equity and consistently update our policies to afford women a level playing field at the workplace and in the society.
A study by McKinsey & Company highlights that DEI are three closely linked values held by organizations, programs, initiatives, and people, working to be supportive of different groups of individuals, including but not limited to people of different races, age, ethnicities, religions, abilities and genders.
Meanwhile, equity aims to ensure the fair treatment, access, equality of opportunity and advancement for everyone while also attempting to identify and remove the barriers that have prevented some groups from fully participating.
Equity according to the author Linda Rosencrance, promotes justice, fairness, and impartiality within the processes, procedures, and distribution of resources by systems or institutions. To tackle equity, people need to understand the root causes and outcome of disparities in society.
However, it is relieving that issues affecting women are receiving the much-needed attention and this moment should be utilized to reiterate that women play a key role in global economic development, and the more women are afforded an enabling environment to climb up the ladder to contribute to decision making, the better it is for the business world, thereby creating significant progress and impact.
At Standard Chartered, we understand the importance of data. We use it to understand situations, find solutions, and measure success rates whilst monitoring the trend as we progress towards gender equality and equity through strategic alignment of people practices informing targeted action.
Leveraging data, the Bank across 59 markets and more than 83,000 different perspectives from 125 countries, has built an organization with diverse experience, capabilities, and culture that set it apart; increasingly taking a data-led approach to better understand the diverse make-up of its workforce. This approach enables us to improve, nurture, and invest in targeted actions, as well as measure progress.
According to the World Bank collection of development indicators, the global labour force participation rate for women is just over 50% compared to 80% for men. However, total labour force for female in Nigeria was reported at 44.21% in 2021, suggesting that more women need fair access to resources and opportunities to break barriers and assume labour market positions.
Standard Chartered is supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals that empower women through our staffing and other community impact initiatives that prepare girls for adult age with a view to ensuring equity complements equality.
As of December 2022, the Group Board of Standard Chartered comprised 57% men and 43% women. The Bank’s senior leadership team boasts of 32.1% women and 67.9% men while all our employees consist of 45.3% women and 53.7% men.
Our gender diversity continues to grow with more women leaders moving up into more senior roles. In 2017, 26% of women in our workforce progressed at the senior leadership level while as of Dec 2022, the figure had risen to 32.1%. We are also committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment that is consistent with the nature of our business, and fairly and consistently recognizing and rewarding colleagues in line with our Fair Pay Charter.
Bringing it home to Nigeria, in compliance with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s policy that requires a minimum of 40% at the top management level in the Banking Industry as at today our senior leadership consists of 42% women and 57% men. Our employee’s strength also reflects this as it comprises of 44.5% women and 55% men.
In our quest towards unleashing the economic potential of girls, we introduced GOAL in 2006. GOAL is part of Futuremakers by Standard Chartered – our global initiative to tackle inequality and promote economic inclusion. Futuremakers transforms the lives of girls and young women through life skills education to bring about economic prosperity and inclusion across our markets.
Since its launch, GOAL has grown into an internationally recognized global movement operating in more than 20 markets. Designed for girls aged 12-18 living in underserved communities, through the delivery of modules on financial education, communication skills, health and hygiene, self-confidence, employability, and cybersecurity, GOAL helps girls and young women transform not just their own lives, but those of their families and friends.
Between 2006 and 2022, we have reached more than 827,000 girls and young women globally. In Nigeria, the program was launched in 2011 and has reached over 300,000 young girls till date. By the end of 2023, we aim to reach about one million girls globally.
Not restricting our impact to young girls alone, we are heavily invested in the financial and economic empowerment of female entrepreneurs through initiatives such as our Women in Tech incubator (WIT) program targeted at helping female owned tech starts up to scale up and become platforms for job creation and economic development in the long run through their own contributions. Since 2019, we have invested nearly half a million dollars in our WIT program and given seed funding to 15 female tech-preneurs.
For our female clients, through our Women Banking and Women Winning with Wealth proposition, we foster communities where women are empowered at every stage of their financial journey with education and specialist advisory support to master wealth creation and sustainable growth.
Whilst the Bank continues to forge linkages, that define and foster a sustainable collective effort to achieve a fairer society, we invite individuals and organizations to continue to educate colleagues, clients, and communities on the need for equity.
The IWD 2023 theme #EmbraceEquity is a mindset and culture that organizations should accept and champion. This theme challenges us to pause, reflect and discuss the realities of equity and equality. How can we ensure these are more inclusive and not exclusive? How can we foster and effect trackable change behind the words?
As we join women across the world to celebrate International Women’s Day, we are reminded of the various roles that women play towards societal advancement and collective growth, and call for the creation of many more opportunities that help them thrive and empower others.
Lamin is the Chief Executive Officer, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria and West Africa
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