The Paradigm for Parity® coalition equips member companies with the tools, insights, and proven strategies needed to close the gender gap and build more inclusive leadership at every level of the organization.
The plan enables companies to secure the best talent to become future leaders.
To support aspirational progress, companies are encouraged to track indicators such as the percentage of women hired each year, the proportion of women among new hires, and the gender breakdown of applicant pools. These insights are intended to guide continuous improvement—not to set quotas—but to help organizations better understand where opportunities exist to advance inclusion in recruitment and hiring.
To support aspirational progress and inform internal decision-making, companies are encouraged to track indicators such as: the percentage of women promoted, promotion rates by gender, the percentage of women in the promotion candidate pool, the proportion of women in the pipeline for senior leadership consideration, and the percentage of women included in senior leadership succession plans. These insights are not intended to set quotas, but to help organizations identify opportunities to advance inclusive leadership development.
To support aspirational progress and strengthen retention strategies, companies are encouraged to track indicators such as: the overall percentage of women in the organization, gender representation across the workforce, attrition rates by gender, and retention rates comparing women and men. These metrics are intended to help organizations better understand trends—not to enforce quotas—and to identify where greater support or engagement may be needed.
Companies are encouraged to track the percentage of women in senior leadership roles—including board positions, the C-suite, and other senior executive roles. In addition, organizations are encouraged to assess their progress in providing high-potential women with access to both sponsorship and mentorship opportunities. These insights are intended to support aspirational progress and inform strategies for advancing leadership representation.
Companies are encouraged to measure their progress relative to their own baseline. Metrics should be viewed holistically, with the overall goal of improving gender representation in leadership. Recognizing that progress may vary across areas, the shared objective is to drive continuous improvement within the organization over time.
Each company is best positioned to determine the metrics most relevant to tracking its progress toward gender parity. Paradigm for Parity® provides measurement best practices and examples to promote shared learning across member companies, but does not impose a standard set of metrics.
Transparency is encouraged, but external reporting is entirely at the discretion of each participating company. Internally, communicating progress helps build shared ownership and momentum toward parity goals across the organization.
Measurement should be straightforward and integrated into existing systems. Metrics do not need to focus solely on gender—especially for companies with broader inclusion goals. Metrics should support and align with the organization’s overall efforts to build a more inclusive and welcoming workplace.
Initiate unconscious bias training. Engage women and men at all levels, starting with the CEO and senior leadership. Ensure that your company leaders comprehend, own and address the conscious and unconscious biases that prevent women of all cultures, races and backgrounds from succeeding.
Commit to a leadership culture that identifies, develops, and advances top talent, ensuring equal opportunities for qualified women to obtain and excel in senior operating roles.
Set aspirational goals then measure to hold yourself and your senior team accountable. Communicate results to your wider organization
and board. Expect meaningful progress each year, with the aim of parity within 15 years. Paradigm for Parity has metrics and a survey
to measure and monitor representation progress. Share statistics with other CEOs and consider publishing results over time.
Give women and men flexibility of where and how they work, whenever practical. Acknowledge the needs and expectations of
various generations as important talent pools. Find ways to work more flexibly to meet the needs of all employees. Create cultural
change so that working flexibly is embraced, and not an underused and over talked about benefit.
Meritocracy is an often used, and more importantly misused, belief because our biases affect our view of performance and merit. Women need career sponsors and access to networks of influence. Men, who are still the majority of leadership, have a critical role to play in advocating for women, both internally and in the wider corporate world. Look for the best within your organization and help them to succeed by assigning each woman a sponsor.
