Companies which are not well informed about the context and the conditions of the actors within their supply chain are more likely to be reinforcing and legitimizing inequalities, in particular against women workers. Ensuring a gender perspective crosscuts the supply chain matters to the business sector because women make up the majority in the lowest paid and most precarious jobs in the supply chain – particularly migrant women, domestic workers, and those employed in low-skilled jobs; and are increasing their participation in global primary production chains. It also matters because women face workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, and other forms of violence, to a much greater extent than men, particularly in global supply chains.
The business sector also should care about their gender impacts across their value chains because women owned businesses, most of them SMEs linked to their supply chains, have much less access to business development opportunities. Women-owned businesses, mostly micro and small businesses, face a wide variety of financial and non-financial barriers that prevent their development and full participation in the formal economy and supply chains, particularly in global supply chains. Promoting women owned SMEs access to procurement opportunities not only enables more business opportunities for women, but also provides the buying companies with greater opportunities to access the best and most suitable suppliers. Undoubtedly when buying companies ignore the economic potential of women owned businesses, and the obstacles and challenges they face to access supply chains, they lose enormous commercial opportunities.
Some actions or measures that organizations can implement include:
- Integrating gender equality into the company’s supply chain management and communicating its commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment to its suppliers.
- Diversifying its suppliers base or increasing its purchases from women owned business.
- Influencing (informing, sensitizing, prioritizing, demanding) the way in which providers of goods and services treat their staff, particularly women. This influence can go from communicating and raising awareness among suppliers, to prioritizing those suppliers that meet certain criteria, or even insisting that their suppliers meet certain criteria in order to continue working with them.
- Establishing alliances with third party entities such as, NGOs, unions, business organizations, and supporting processes and projects that promote gender equality and the empowerment of women in the value chain