International Women’s Day is an opportunity to celebrate wins, raise awareness and get conversations going that shine the light onto real problems that women face at work and in their broader cultural and socio-economic environments.
Spurring conversations and inspiring change, both by individuals and larger corporations, however small or big that step looks like – resharing a post on social media or speaking at a conference – doesn’t go unnoticed. It generates momentum that the world needs right now.
We’ve dived into the narrative at Cint by uncovering the insights around International Women’s Day. Using CintSnap – a way to survey individuals and understand opinions quickly – we conducted a comprehensive poll involving 300 participants from both the United States and the United Kingdom.
The results provide a snapshot of public opinion on different aspects of gender equality in the workplace, areas of progress and where more attention should be focused on.
Awareness and advocacy
While in an ideal world, we wouldn’t require a day (or month) dedicated to driving awareness on gender equality, the reality closer to home is that it is that we need this day more than ever. A bit of positive news was that over half of people surveyed across both countries were aware that International Women’s Day falls on the 8th of March. Approximately 2 in 3 also agreed on the significance of this day in promoting gender equality in the workplace. Is a day in itself enough to ignite conversations and action change? A substantial majority expressed the belief that more could be done throughout the year to advocate for gender equality in the workplace, with varying percentages – 59% in the US and 69% in the UK – calling for increased action.
Whose responsibility?
Half of respondents polled from the US and 67% in the UK indicated that both men and women were responsible for promoting gender equality. Although there were slight differences in emphasis, with the US leaning more towards men taking additional action.Women leaders and pay equality
A significant majority in both the US (64%) and UK (71%) acknowledged the continued underrepresentation of women in leadership positions. Further to this, a strikingly high percentage in both countries believed that women are often underpaid compared to men in similar positions, indicating a rife perception of pay disparity.
