Jonathan Wootliff
A former director of Greenpeace International, Jonathan Wootliff lives in Prague and works throughout the world as a sustainability consultant to business. He is Chair of the Board of Experts of the Czech Business Council for Sustainable Development. He has consulted many large corporations including BP, Colgate-Palmolive, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble and Whirlpool, and providing counsel to companies on the development of sustainability strategies that benefit the environment, society and business. Among his many activities, he helps companies to resolve disputes, forge productive relationships with non-governmental organizations, and build long-term sustainability strategies. A qualified journalist with a subsequent background in public relations, Jonathan commonly assists companies with their sustainability communications. He can be contacted at jonathan@wootliff.com.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, misogyny is the “hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls.” Sadly, the evidence suggests that this is a lingering characteristic of Czech society.
Women in the Czech Republic receive lower salaries than men, occupy lower positions at work and are more at risk of poverty. This is surely unsustainable.
Are women not as good at their jobs? They receive salaries which are one fifth lower than men’s. They are also much more at risk of poverty with unequal pay translating into lower pensions for women.
Disappointingly, the Czech Republic has one of the highest differences in the European Union between the salaries of women and men. Last year, women earned 22 percent less than men and the gap is not narrowing.
If you do the mathematics, this means that on average women work for free for three months of the year when compared with men. This converts into about 70,000 Czech crowns missing from family budgets due to this discrimination per year.
Czech Society generally expects women to be the primary carers for children or older and ill people as part of their unpaid work. Women thus work two shifts and their free choice is limited by social expectations. Why does half of the population get treated so differently?
One particularly fast-growing group which is enormously at risk of poverty and social exclusion are single mothers. They are already disadvantaged because they commonly earn less than their Czech counterparts. On top of this, the risk of poverty is often increased by unpaid alimony.
In spite of the obvious fact that women account for around 50 percent of the population, there is a significant democratic deficit in this country with only one fifth of them represented in politics.
In world rankings of the representation of women in parliament, the Czech Republic is in 88th place. The Czech political sphere thus remains the domain of men. But since political decisions affect both men and women, female experiences and perspectives should not be lacking in politics. The problem lies not so much in the indifference of women towards politics, but rather in political parties, which often place women in unelectable places on their electoral lists.
A recent Eurobarometer survey indicates that gender equality is still not being achieved across Europe, but the situation is particularly bleak in Eastern and Central Europe.
The Czech Republic came in bottom place on the Index which is calculated according to a series of questions and averaged to reflect the strength or weakness of a country’s support of gender equality.
There can be no doubt that social attitudes towards gender equality in the Czech Republic are worryingly retarded with 77 per cent of people still believing that the most important role of a woman is to take care of her home and family and seventy-two percent of Czechs saying the most important role of a man is to earn money.
An extraordinary eighty-three percent of Czechs think women are more likely to make decisions based on their emotions, and 61 percent see nothing wrong with the way women are represented in the media.
The Index shows that the Czech Republic is in the top five nations where stereotypes are formed based on gender.
Around the world, gender bias is attracting renewed attention. Through protest marches and viral social-media campaigns, women everywhere are demanding an end to sexual harassment, abuse, femicide, and inequality.
As successful as the #MeToo movement have been in raising public awareness, the struggle for parity is far from over. Empowering women and girls is one of the key Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations. Right now, gender bias remains a significant obstacle to global progress, and it is particularly acute in the workplace.
The Czech Republic is not alone in its regressive attitudes towards women. Today, only 5 percent of the world’s largest 500 companies are led by women. This dismal figure is all the more remarkable when one considers that 73 percent of global firms allegedly have equal-opportunity policies in place, according to a survey by the International Labour Organization.
Addressing such deficiencies is both an economic and a moral imperative. A recent report by the much-respected McKinsey Global Institute found that if women and men played an “identical role in labour markets”, US$28 trillion would be added to the global economy by 2025. These global gains would be in addition to the benefits for individual companies.
Companies with greater gender equality are more innovative, generous, and profitable. But,
at the current rate of female empowerment, it would take nearly 220 years to close the gender gap. The world cannot afford to wait that long; we clearly need a new approach.
Since the Revolution, the Czech Republic has attained an impressive reputation as a fast- developing, forward-thinking and economically successful nation. However, the slow pace of change in terms of attitudes towards women is going to hold this country back.
Businesses, communities, and families must work together to bridge the all-too-large gender gap. This isn’t about political correctness. The cost of doing nothing is too high for any business – and economies as a whole – to bear, which is why I am optimistic that eliminating gender bias at work is possible. When companies make female empowerment central to their business strategies, growth and equality can be mutually reinforcing to leave no one behind.
Perhaps we can learn from Iceland. After the financial crash in 2008, Iceland responded by sending the leaders of their three banks, all men, to jail. Two were replaced with women. The entire government also resigned, and their male prime minister was replaced by a woman as well. This precipitated a larger cultural and social “women’s takeover” in Iceland.
The head of Iceland’s Chamber of Commerce, also a woman, spoke for many when she derided the “man-made” crisis as a “penis competition” among bankers.
It was an extraordinary phenomenon. It’s as if an entire population rose up, unified, with a single objective to flush the testosterone out of its system. This flew in the face of thousands of years of history, turning upside down a culture that had always celebrated its bloodthirsty Viking heritage.
Iceland is now ranked as No. 1 in the world for gender equality by the World Economic Forum.
Undervaluing the role of women in the workplace is surely an obstacle to this country’s success. Sustainability is an essential ingredient for economic progress and gender equality is one of its central pillars. Women have far too much to offer and treating them like second class citizens will cost us dearly.
It’s time for the Czech men to shed their old- fashioned macho thinking, and to genuinely acknowledge that women are equal in every aspect of life. Goodbye misogyny. Let’s welcome in a new era of enlightenment.
By Jonathan Wootliff