While much has been done to advance gender equality around the world, there is no debate that large gaps remain, especially in emerging markets.
According to Orit Federlein-Doodai, head of HR, EMEA at PayU Global Payments, women in these markets face significant barriers in achieving a gender-equal world, including limited access to education, healthcare and finance, not to mention longstanding cultural norms and unconscious bias that have also contributed to limiting the economic empowerment of women.
These preexisting challenges were further exacerbated by the pandemic, Federlein-Doodai told PYMNTS in an interview, reversing several decades of progress. “Women couldn’t keep on operating and had to stop working and go back to taking care of their families,” she said.
Together, those hurdles have taken a toll on women entrepreneurship and gender diversity in the workplace, widening the gender gaps that technology and digital tools are helping to solve today.
She pointed to alternative payment methods like mobile money as one of the solutions that has been instrumental to this cause, because of the access it gives female entrepreneurs to digital financial services, which in turn empowers them to spend, save and manage their own money, while investing in their economic futures.
Read more: ‘Touch Plus Tech’ Boosts Emerging Market Female-Owned Business Success
Access to digital tools has also made it easier for women to access loans and telehealth healthcare services, she further noted, improving the quality of their day-to-day lives.
In the workplace, she said, digitization and technology have been “revolutionary,” improving workplace flexibility and enabling more women to work remotely and in turn spend more time with their families.
That said, there is still a long way to go to fill the gaps that remain in the workplace, she said, a task that she said global companies like PayU can help tackle.
In fact, she said, firms can make a difference right from the hiring process, when they’re searching for talent, by prioritizing qualified female candidates that might be traditionally overlooked due to inconsistencies in their profile.
“Global companies can be agents of change by integrating gender into workplace policies,” Federlein-Doodai explained, adding that these guidelines should go beyond recruitment to improve gender equality throughout the employee life cycle.
These can include additional skills training and programs to empower women to take on leadership roles, fair compensation practices and creating standard promotion procedures that enable deserving women to move up the corporate ladder easily and fairly.
“Companies can create a committee that’s tasked with driving these initiatives during the entire employee life cycle, from onboarding through to promotion, to ensure that female employees get the same treatment as their male colleagues,” she said, adding that creating a workplace environment where women’s voices are heard and welcomed is critical for growth.
In their quest to drive gender equality, Federlein-Doodai said firms shouldn’t treat diversity and inclusion “as a one-off initiative,” but rather as a continuous process that becomes part and parcel of a company’s workplace practices.
Companies that make this a top priority will reap the positive benefits of a thriving gender diverse workforce, she explained, noting, “Diverse teams with different perspectives and experiences have been shown to unlock innovation and technology, which is critical to a company’s bottom-line growth and development.”
Overall, it’s not a one-size fits all approach, and global companies will need local, tailor-made solutions to solve the problems and specific needs of women in each market they operate in, she added.
When asked about her hope for the future, Federlein-Doodai said it’s seeing more female leaders in managerial positions and at decision-making tables, ones that can inspire a new generation of leaders.
“I would love to see more female CEOs and have it be so common that it won’t be a topic to be discussed or promoted,” she said.
For all PYMNTS EMEA coverage, subscribe to the daily EMEA Newsletter.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More