Recognising and reflecting on International Women’s Day 2022
Recent years have brought great strides towards gender equality, yet there is still much work to be done in closing the gender pay gap, democratising access to healthcare, ensuring women’s safety, and more.
These are necessary steps to make a better world for us all, since when women thrive, we all thrive. Today and every day, we celebrate the promise of International Women’s Day: striving to create a gender-equal world.
As part of our core values, the ETF Partners team is committed to uplifting gender equality in the workplace and celebrating the achievements of women. We consistently encourage the actions and behaviours that we believe will help drive diversity and inclusion in our organisation and beyond.
As an industry it is important that we continue to not only explore some of the inherent and often unconscious biases that exist, but also push the envelope to embrace real change. Only by addressing this head-on will we reach our collective goal of gender equality in the workplace. You can read more on ETF Partners’ work in this space in our previous whitepaper.
Since the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day celebration is Breaking the Bias, we asked some of our team to answer how we can go about breaking the bias and amplify our commitment to gender equality in the workplace. From acknowledging our own limitations to ensuring diverse leadership, here are their responses.
Rob Genieser — Managing Partner
Although the conversation around diversity and equity in the workplace might be louder than ever, it has never been more important for leaders to ensure that their commitments cut through the noise and still ensure real world changes. That means implementing concrete commitments to hiring diverse talent and establishing processes to ensure that these new hires feel included and part of the team. One way we can make this happen is through mentorship schemes and providing platforms for all members of the team to have their voices and concerns heard.
Patrick Sheehan — Managing Partner
Right from the founding of ETF Partners it was clear that diversity and equality in the workplace would help us achieve success. We have invested over the years in many other companies and so we see that, across the board, having a diversity of experiences, opinions, and expertise, when combined with respect and with listening, simply helps deliver better decisions and so better results. We are not complacent about this in our own business and in those we invest in. We are, though, believers in continuous improvement, which we will continue to push for.
Leanne England — Head of Finance
As with all corporate culture, strong leadership originates from the top. Senior executives need to be fully and visibly committed to driving the change for gender equality so that it flows through an organisation. Otherwise, it is merely gender washing.
One way to achieve this is by setting targets for gender diversity on the board to ensure gender diverse opinions and different approaches can be included. This could be facilitated through regular collaboration with senior female members of the business. Alternatively, a shadow board could be established that is made up of different genders, ethnicities, and ages to offer a fresh perspective.
We must also destigmatise shared parental leave to make it the norm and not the exception. Otherwise, we risk reinforcing the assumption that women are the primary caregivers and that can harm their careers, as well as men’s wellbeing in being considered a second-class parent.
Remy De Tonnac — Partner
We can only break the bias by acknowledging our own biases first and committing to working on transforming them. We must get comfortable in having uncomfortable conversations and being vulnerable in sharing our thoughts. Avoiding the conversation is never the answer and shaming someone else’s ignorance is not the way to change ingrained practices.
First and foremost, we need to look around us and make sure that we are surrounded by a diverse group of people. Set quantifiable targets within your organisation related to gender equity and put everyone, at every level, on the task force to achieve them.
As leaders, we need to do the work to make sure that everyone understands how much of a game changer diversity and equity is for keeping the best talent in your organisation and for increasing your performance.
Setting diversity targets is the first, simple step. Yet, if you hire new talent and then don’t make them feel like they belong in your organisation, you aren’t doing the work at all.
Elisabeth Kuester — Associate
Diversity needs to be a holistic endeavour. We must fill all workplaces with diverse employees at all levels. That is the only way we can normalise its intrinsic value and make sure that everyone has role models that look like them and that might share their life experiences throughout the business.
If we only allow a certain type of person to rise to the top of an organisation, we risk alienating so many others and ultimately damaging our potential for growth and success, since a diversity of perspective can challenge ingrained processes and opinions and create positive, lasting changes.
Kajsa Johansson — Associate
We all have biases and we need to work hard to make sure that they are not only acknowledged but also challenged. The only way they can be challenged is to share them with others to gain a new perspective. Yet, if we merely share our biases with others who have the same frame of mind, they will never be challenged. It is therefore critical that we are surrounded by a diverse team who can share their differing life experiences to help us see the gaps in our thinking. Only then can we break the bias and rebuild an inclusive workplace that puts its people at the heart of its practices.
Zoë VanderWolk — Investor Relations and Sustainability Manager
As a signatory of the Investing in Women initiative, ETF Partners is committing to measuring diversity not just in our portfolio teams but throughout our entire dealflow. Collecting this data has helped us identify where to target our efforts and to make sure that we are not missing out on the best entrepreneurs to add to our vibrant and inclusive teams. Placing this diversity at the heart of our operations is the only way we can ensure that we thrive as an organisation in the future.
Today, we applaud all the women (and men) who #BreakTheBias. Let’s ensure that we continue to vocalise and act on a strong commitment to advancing women across all facets of society.
