Developments in company reporting on workplace gender equality?

Abstract

This paper investigates the extent to which external reporting by UK best practice companies now includes performance information about gender equality in the workplace. It examines the reasons for company disclosure on this issue and the barriers to better reporting.

Keywords:

• Gender equality
• Corporate reporting
• Corporate social responsibility
• Accountability
• Regulation

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Opportunity Now for help with access to our sample companies; our interviewees for their time and input; the Employers Forum on Disability for assistance with methodology; the Equal Opportunity Commission for comments on our interview questionnaire; Dave Owen, Markus Milne and the anonymous referees for comments on the paper. The research was funded by the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, Nottingham University Business School.

Notes

1 Equal opportunities.

2 The CEHR is the UK Commission for Equality and Human Rights which, as of 1 October 2007 is called the Equality and Human Rights Commission. It is a statutory body established under the Equality Act 2006, which took over the responsibilities of the Commission for Racial Equality, Disability Rights Commission and Equal Opportunities Commission.

3 Information from Opportunity Now, given by telephone, September 2007.

4 There have also been warnings in the accounting literature that the provision of more information may not necessarily lead to improved transparency and practice in this area (e.g. Adams & McPhail, 2004; Strathern, 2000; Tsoukas, 1997).

5 The companies were from the financial services (13), retail (2), transport (2), telecommunications (1), energy (1) and manufacturing (1) sectors.

6 Eight of these interviews were recorded and transcribed, and notes were taken during the other three.

7 Their job titles were: Employment Policy Advisor, Diversity Advisor, Senior Recruitment Consultant, Diversity Manager, Head of Diversity, Head of Organisational Development, European Director of Diversity, Head of Employment Policy, Personnel Director, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, and Head of a Human Capital Reporting Project. Three of these interviewees were men and eight were women.

8 Six interviewees were from the banking sector, two from the energy sector, one from telecoms, one from transport, and one from manufacturing.

9 Via mandatory annual reporting to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Section 709(c), Title VII, Civil Rights Act of 1967, as Amended by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972).

10 Such as training, career restructuring, and reviews of promotion criteria (e.g. relocation requirements).

11 Includes reporting on training of senior women (e.g. participation in executive development) and on women-only training courses.

12 Twenty-six of employers benchmarking with ON included gender/diversity in management performance appraisal in 2003/2004, and this figure remains the same in 2006/2007 (ON, 2004b, 2007).

13 The Female FTSE Index is now addressing this issue.

14 For example, one could confirm that home-workers were just as engaged as other workers.

15 Adams and McNicholas (2007, p. 399) found examples of data demonstrating good social or environmental performance which the state-owned organisation they studied had not considered reporting. They argued that this showed that reporting was not used to mould perception of the organisation's environmental performance. Several of our interviewees made this same argument.

16 Aurora Gender Capital Management.