Specific equality goals increase the likelihood of women in top positions by as much as 63% worldwide. This effect that can be further enhanced by transparency of procedures to ensure equal pay.

Accenture has identified 40 factors in its “Getting to Equal” study that enable companies to actively create a culture of equality and close gender pay gaps. They can be clustered into three broad areas: “Strong Leadership”, “Comprehensive Action Plan” and “Motivating Work Environment”. This has very concrete effects on the gender pay gap, which would be reduced significantly.

A favourable environment also has a positive effect on motivation to move up the career ladder. 84% of employees in Austria and Germany aspire to promotion or further development, compared to 98% in Switzerland. If conditions are “unfavourable”, less than half in all three countries, and the least in Austria aspire to be developed further.

Worldwide, companies with at least one female CxO count about three times as many “fast trackers” as those in which the entire top management is male (23 % vs. 8 %). By the way: The greatest positive equality effect is achieved by increasing the proportion of women in management from 0 %to 35 %.