MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Make Gender Equality a Value, Not a Priority

Organizations within any industry can take constructive steps to make gender equality a strategic value.

It may seem like a semantic question. It isn’t. The difference is critical and key to making big changes happen. To make gender equality a reality — from the boardroom and C-suite to front-line employees — organizations need to shift their thinking around values.

Priorities can change at any time. Values do not. Values and beliefs drive culture and behaviors.

I’ve seen this cultural shift happen with another crucial workplace issue: safety. For 10 years, I worked as a safety executive in oil and gas companies. After years of devastating accidents and injuries, rapid improvements followed. An analyst said the industry was becoming one of the safest. Annual accident records show the turnaround continuing.