Hi,
I'm struggling articulating the importance of have some kind of policy regarding gender consideration at work.
I work in a male dominated industry (agriculture). The senior leadership team consists of 7 men and 1 woman. My department is actually mainly women but the other departments are definitely more male dominated. I'm management but not senior but hoping to be when my manager retires. I manage a team of women.
There is a new project at work which spans the company. There have been several presentations about it to get us all on board as we will need to be heavily involved. A panel has been selected to head up the project and make the decisions on which ideas are allowed to progress. There are no women on this panel. I questioned this when I saw it for the first time. The answer was 'we considered this but people were chosen on merit', such as international experience, strategic thinkers.
I have questioned it again today and received the same answer. I tried to articulate myself that until women are equally treated, there should be more of an effort for inclusion on this type of project. Not only that but there are a number of very capable women who they could have chosen. I'm not interested in this for myself as my workload is way too high at the moment but the fact they think it's appropriate to not include any women has really annoyed me.
Can anyone help me articulate a better argument for this? I'm going to approach HR about it (the only female on the senior team) but I want to have my argument nailed. I do think they will listen and I'm hoping the outcome will be some more inclusive policies.
Conversely if you think overreacting please say!