A more inclusive world of work with SPEED-FEM
Women are an extremely diverse group of people. As such, discrimination towards women can be compounded by intersecting factors, such as ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation and disability. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for women, and if we fail to recognise this, we risk putting up further barriers to true equality. It is therefore important to consider how gender intersects with other grounds of discrimination in order to build effective diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) strategies.
The Speed-Fem Project
The SPEED-FEM project, Sharing Practices for Equity and Empowerment in Diversity with a FEMale intersectional approach, was born from the collaboration between Fondazione Sodalitas, Fondazione Soleterre, Fondazione Libellula for Italy, KEAN, and D&I for Greece. Its goal is to enhance the role of women in the workplace while considering the specific characteristics of each individual’s identity through an intersectional lens.
The project focuses on women facing multiple forms of discrimination in the workplace in Italy and Greece—two countries ranking among the lowest in Europe in terms of gender equity in employment. SPEED-FEM’s actions target companies and their employees, promoting the creation of more inclusive workplaces through mutual learning and awareness-raising activities. It gathers stories and best practices already implemented by companies, sharing and promoting them to encourage more organizations to adopt non-discriminatory measures.
SPEED-FEM Collection
Companies with effective equal opportunity and inclusion policies yield higher profits and are more productive, open to innovation and able to retain talent. What is more, inclusive companies have a positive impact on society as a whole, as they contribute to the mainstreaming of non-discrimination policies.
The goal of this collection of best practices is to give concrete examples of the measures that companies of various types and sizes can adopt to create a truly inclusive work environment.
The best practices featured in the collection were selected by the project’s partners in Italy and Greece from the over 40 received and following an in-depth interview concerning the 20 considered most consistent with the project’s objectives. The measures presented are intentionally diverse in terms of geographical origin, size and sector of the company, as well as the activities implemented.