Promoting Gender Equality in Companies: A Path Forward in Building a More Responsible Future—Diagnosis of the "Happy Company Group"

Social ResponsibilitySocial responsibility, in particular, the Promotion of Gender EqualityPromotion of gender equality, has been an element with increasing relevance with regard to the prestigePrestige and reputation of organizationsOrganizations (Fundação Instituto de Administração, 2019), not only today, but also, and increasingly, in the futureFuture. It is considered a fundamental right and an essential component for economic growth (Fundação Instituto de Administração, 2019). The implementation of a formalized gender equalityGender equality policy must be based on positive factors such as the capitalization of resourcesCapitalization of resources, loyaltyLoyalty and motivationMotivation, productivityProductivity, and reputationReputation and imageImage, both internally and externally (Comissão para a Cidadania e Igualdade de Género, 2008). Likewise, the evaluation of a company'sCompanies level of promotion of gender equalityPromotion of gender equality involves analyzing nine dimensions of Gender EqualityGender equality in the internal and external environment of the organizationOrganizations, namely, the company's missionMission and valuesValues; recruitmentRecruitment and selectionSelection of personnelPersonnel; lifelong learningLifelong learning; remunerationRemuneration and career managementCareer management; social dialogueSocial dialogue and participation of workersParticipation of workers; respect for human dignityDignity; informationInformation, communicationCommunication and imageImage; conciliation between professional, familyFamily and personal lifePersonal life; and maternityMaternity and paternityPaternity protectionProtection and family assistanceFamily assistance (Comissão para a Cidadania e Igualdade de Género, 2008). In this way, the present workWork consists of an assessment of the Happy Company Group's level of promotion of gender equalityPromotion of gender equality, through the application of the diagnostic questionnaire produced within the scope of the “Social Dialogue and Equality in Companies” project financed by the European initiative EQUAL (Comissão para a Igualdade no Trabalho e no Emprego et al., 2008). The questionnaire was completed based on document analysis and through informalFormal interviews with companyCompanies employeesEmployees.