Giving Compass' Take:

• Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood America calls for more recognition of women's issues in the workplace in regard to company culture, women's health care, and reproductive rights. 

• How can businesses ensure equitability and transparency for women in the workplace? Why is it important for us to create these changes now for the next generation? 

• Read about ways to confront gender bias in the workplace. 

2017 will be remembered as the year of women, as the year when women across the country and in every industry said, “Me Too” in unison. In January of 2017, nearly 5 million Americans marched for women’s rights; since that time, the Women’s March has been called one of the largest demonstrations in American history. In February, Susan Fowler published her now viral essay on the culture of sexual harassment at Uber.

In December, it was the “silence breakers” who were given the honor of Time’s Person of the Year. And by January 1, 2018, a legal defense fund had been created through a new organization powered by women, appropriately named, Time’s Up. The organization addresses the systemic inequality and injustice in the workplace that have kept underrepresented groups from reaching their full potential.

In November of 2017, Cecile Richards, outgoing President of Planned Parenthood of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund addressed a captive audience of business leaders at the 2017 Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) conference, themed “How Business Leads.”

Richards recommends that you ask yourself these questions about your company culture, and answer them critically and honestly. Is your workplace a place that makes it easier or harder for women to succeed? Are women paid equally? Do you have paid family leave? And do you take  sexual harassment and sexual assault seriously?

  1.  Company culture
  2. What type of women’s healthcare coverage do you
    offer?
  3. Reproductive rights is your issue too

The movement for women’s rights in the workplace is about you and I today, but more importantly about creating a world and a work culture that we all will be proud to send the next generation of girls into, knowing that people of every gender, every creed and color fought hard for them to get there.

Read the full article about strengthening the movement for women's rights by Laura K. Wise at TriplePundit.