How Gender Studies works with the corporate sector as a target group?

1. How Gender Studies works with the corporate sector as a target group? Nina Bosničová, Gender Studies, o.p.s. Prague, March 22, 2012

2. Gender Studies’ approach toward the problematic of the labor market • labor market as our “specialty”, niche expertise in the given problematic (←funding, beliefs and values,…) • complex work including all the relevant actors at the labor market: “ordinary” people endangered by sex- and age-based discrimination at the labor market (with the focus on (future) parents of small children, people over 50, etc.)) and EMPLOYERS (including commercial firms and PA)

3. Commercial firms – how we approach them, how we talk to them? • we were among the first gender-related NGO’s in the Czech Republic which gave a try to this type of intersectoral dialogue and cooperation • long-term effort (in building contacts, receiving trust and respect) • decision to take the way of POSITIVE MOTIVATION (rather than (negative) criticism and sanctions) • catering to particular and current company needs springing from e.g. demographic trends (e.g. babyboom, ageing, etc.) • language use (equal opportunities between women and men, rather than feminism, equality, etc., costs and benefits, business case rather than legislature and ethics, etc. although we try to have the CSR rhetoric present in our discourse as much as possible) • visual aspects – the “look” of our products has to be understood and “liked” by people from the commercial sector (they should be able to relate to them), stress on BRANDING

4. Activities oriented at firms, services provided to them -FOCUS ON HR MANAGEMENT and to some extent also MARKETING • ContestFirm of the Year: Equal Opportunities (since 2004) • Gender audit Equal Opportunities • Tailor-made trainings for firm representatives (work/life balance, gender and marketing, costs and benefits of equal opportunities, etc.) • Consultancy in the areas related to equal opportunities at the labor market (including, for instance, the implementation of a company kindergarten) – on the phone, by e-mail, face-to-face • Production and dissemination of an electronic monthly “Equal Opportunities into Firms” (and its yearly hard copy version) • Publishing of practical manuals and production of interactive quizzes and games for managers (making use of modern technologies), online database of company best practices, etc. • Production of legal reports (e.g. on home office, company kindergartens, …) • Round table discussions, (international) conferences, thematic networks • Campaigns (and other PR materials) targeted at company representatives

5. Gender Trainings • normally, we are allowed to train only the managerial level (for fear that it would cause a “revolution,” if we were given access to “ordinary” employees) • format: powerpoint presentation (theoretical background) + interactive excercises (modest number and not too “alternative,” due to a rather conservative nature of the target group) + discussion • Mostly offered for free, even so, interest not always high (Prague better than the regions, problems in periods of economic recession)

6. Challenges • funding of activities targeted at the commercial sector (accessibility, the “right” source, pricing) • is it possible/easy to “keep your hands clean” when you cooperate with commercial firms? Is one company more problematic than the other (where do you draw the moral line)? • functionality of the “positive motivation” approach (improving the situation or conserving the status quo?) • functionality of the cooperation between NGO’s and commercial firms (including the interest of companies to cooperate with feminists) • Avoiding “double standards”

7. Webpages • http://www.rovneprilezitosti.ecn.cz • http://zpravodaj.genderstudies.cz • http://www.genderstudies.cz

8. Thanks for your attention!nina.bosnicova@genderstudies.cz