I’ve helped develop life-saving medicines as part of my 25+ year pharmaceutical career and feel fortunate to have experienced that kind of personal contribution to society. Over the past two years, since taking on the role of executive sponsor of the Women’s Employee Resource Group (ERG) in our company, I’ve developed an entirely new perspective on another societal issue in which I’ve become deeply entrenched – gender equality.
When I assumed this extracurricular role in the organization, I did what any scientist would. I immersed myself in research, poring over studies conducted by the likes of McKinsey, Bain & Company and Sheryl Sandberg’s Leanin.org. The data was discouraging. According to a report presented at the World Economic Forum in 2015, it’s going to take 118 more years before women achieve economic equality in the U.S. workplace. That’s too long.
I’ve made it my job to bring more men to the table in this discussion. Why? Because women telling other women what you already know isn’t solving anything. And we’ll never find solutions if we exclude half of the population, especially the half that makes up most corporate leadership positions. That’s why we started a men’s advocate network within our women’s ERG.
Today, we have more than 50 men participating as allies for women within our company. On top of that, we just piloted a program to train men about gender partnership. For two days, a mix of 20 men from different levels and different areas of the business strategized about how to better support women and learning that men don’t “lose” if women “win.” In fact, mounds of data suggest that when women are an equal part of the equation, men will realize benefits that they currently don’t see.
The men who are opting in are often the men who have daughters, particularly if their daughters are teenagers or older. That’s because they are starting to realize that gender discrimination can limit their daughters’ opportunities and affect their futures.
I have a son. He’s 25. I want him to be an ally for the women he will work side-by-side with in his career. My hope is he sees me as a role model… and his inspiration comes from his biggest cheerleader, his sister.
Bill Fitzsimmons is Executive Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Clinical and Research Quality Assurance at Astellas, a Japan-based pharmaceutical company with U.S. headquarters in Northbrook, IL. He also is the executive sponsor for the Astellas women's employee resource group, Stellar Woman, and the father of a 23-year-old daughter.