Diversity in companies: expert wants to send more men on parental leave
Created: 06/10/2022, 17:00
By: Jasmine Farah
Colourful, mixed and creative: Diversity should benefit companies and break down prevailing role models.
An expert wants more.
Ever since the women's quota was introduced in Germany in 2016, the corporate structure has gradually started to change.
Companies are under pressure to meet the specified requirements.
The women's quota is a supervisory board quota for women in business that has been set by the federal government.
The goal is a more colorful corporate culture in order to break down prevailing thought patterns and role models.
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Diversity in companies: expert wants to send more men on parental leave
This also strengthens the backs of many women who are looking for work and want to “feel represented and accepted by the company”, explains diversity expert Tijen Onaran in an interview with the customer magazine of Deutsche Bahn
mobil.
She founded a company called "Global Digital Women", which advises companies on all issues relating to diversity, inclusion and equality.
She also knows that these topics are increasingly coming into focus.
One expert is certain that if more men take part-time parental leave, this could help women immensely in their careers.
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More and more corporations are claiming their work, the "power woman", as she is often called, has her hands full.
Mainly because there are apparently still many companies that see diversity as a “charity project”, i.e. only push it laxly and only meet the minimum standards.
"But if the prevailing structures don't allow women to get to the top, then no women's advancement program or women's network will help," Onaran knows.
But how can role stereotypes finally be broken down?
More diversity in companies: expanding part-time management positions for women
For the diversity expert, small steps are enough to accelerate the rethinking: "For example, it should be quite normal for men to take parental leave or share their job with a woman.
The more often that happens, the more commonplace it becomes.” However, we still have a lot of work to do, since in Germany there is still a very rigid idea of how a family is structured and what the roles of mothers and fathers should be.
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In addition, many men today earn more than women, sometimes in the same positions.
This is also one of the reasons why more women still take part-time parental leave than their partners.
According to Onaran, this also means that companies will have to offer more part-time management positions in the future.
In addition, she demands: "By 2030 we want to create gender parity at all management levels." Although she knows that stubborn prejudices can only be broken down slowly, she concludes: "That's why companies have to stick with the topic in the long term."
