The Business Case for Women′s Equality. Is the Carrot Better than the Stick?
| Pages | 5-18 |
| Date | 01 December 1994 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425459410073915 |
| Published date | 01 December 1994 |
| Author | Linda Dickens |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Women’s
Equality
5
The Business Case for
Women’s Equality
Is the Carrot Better than the Stick?
Linda Dickens
Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
The business case for improving opportunities for women in employment rests
on the argument that such action will be beneficial for those organizations taking
it: that equal opportunity (EO) is linked to organizational competitiveness.
The business-case rationale for EO action is increasingly being made, rather than
social-moral exhortation or an emphasis on compliance with equality legislation.
Employers are being told that there are “sound commercial reasons” to pursue
equality of opportunity[1,2]. The emphasis on the “carrot” of EO as “good for
business” by those seeking to stimulate action is not surprising given the apparent
weakness of the “stick” of legal-compliance to produce radical change in the
aggregate picture of women’s pay and employment and the current Government’s
preference for voluntary action and de-regulation rather than stronger legal
intervention. It also fits into an economic-political context in which arguments
based on moral obligation and appeals to social justice, while they may be
acknowledged, appear insufficient to produce action. The business case presents
EO as a sensible business strategy rather than as an ethical/political issue.
In this article I consider briefly the continuing need for initiatives to promote
women’s equality (“EO action”) in the light of women’s continuing pay and
employment disadvantages and the failure of the legal compliance approach to
effect much change. I then outline and critically assess the business case for EO.
My argument is first that, in practice in the UK, there is not a business case for
EO, but rather a number of business arguments which have greater or lesser
attraction for particular employers in particular circumstances. The business-
case arguments, although valid, are contingent on and made within variable
decision-making contexts. Receptiveness to them, therefore, is likely to be uneven
and they will not guarantee action on the part of all employers, at all times.
Second, I argue that in terms of its potential to change the aggregate picture
of women’s pay and employment disadvantages, the business-case approach is
limited in that, by its very nature, it leads to selective, tailored action within
organizations as they focus on those EO initiatives perceived to be most obviously
in their interests. I argue that the carrot, like the stick, has a number of weaknesses.
In the final section I consider what else might be needed.
Employee Relations, Vol. 16 No. 8,
1994, pp. 5-18. © MCBUniversity
Press, 0142-5455
This article arises from the 1994 Shirley Lerner Memorial Lecture entitled “Women, Employment
and Discrimination” delivered to the Manchester Industrial Relations Society in May 1994.
The focus in this article only on equality for women reflects the topic of the original lecture.
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