Pillars of Organizational Change

Clarity, Transparency and Accountability

For gender equality to move from being a rhetorical aspiration to an operational reality, leadership must adopt a systemic approach.

According to the theoretical framework developed by expert Iris Bohnet, there are three critical factors for reducing bias and discrimination in organizations: clarity, transparency and accountability.

First, clarity involves defining the purpose of initiatives without ambiguity.

It is not enough to say "we want to be inclusive"; the leader must articulate what that means in terms of metrics, retention and advancement of female talent, communicating it to employees and stakeholders.

Second, full transparency is the antidote to the opacity where biases hide.

This means making processes visible: showing what is being done, how promotion decisions are made and publishing real progress, however modest.

Third, accountability: leaders must be held accountable for diversity targets with the same rigor that they are held accountable for financial targets.

Without measurement and consequences for noncompliance, commitment is diluted. The leader must lead by example.

If a CEO talks about equality but his or her daily priorities ignore the issue, the organization will detect the inconsistency and tune out.

In addition, the physical and digital environment must be audited: do the images on the website or in the hallways of corporate headquarters show only white men? Attracting diverse talent requires the company to look diverse in its visual and educational representations.

Zero Tolerance and Pay Equity

Transformational leadership requires courage to set non-negotiable boundaries.

The first is a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment. Too often, managers delegate this to Human Resources and are unaware of the protocols.

The leader must be bold, know the policies and provide personal and immediate support if a colleague reports an assault, sending a clear message of support to the victims and a warning to the aggressors.

The second boundary is economic justice. Fairness manifests itself most tangibly in the payroll.

Best practices include conducting periodic salary audits to detect and correct unjustified gaps.

Likewise, transparency must be applied at the hiring stage: establishing clear salary criteria and publishing salary bands in job advertisements ("negotiable salary" should be explicit) prevents women, who are often socially penalized for negotiating aggressively, from being disadvantaged from day one.

Finally, job design must recognize life outside the office.

Since women often assume the burden of care, flexible structures