International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated around the globe to raise awareness and help advance gender equality. This year, the IWD campaign theme is #EachforEqual – promoting the idea that an equal world is an enabled world.
Equality at Boston Scientific is a core focus of our diversity and inclusion efforts. To celebrate IWD we sat down with Tanya Reimann, a director of portfolio management and project management for rhythm management and global lead of the Women’s Network employee resource group (ERG). Tanya shared her thoughts on the importance of IWD and how companies, like Boston Scientific, are integral to forging a gender-equal world. See the full story here:
What does equality mean to you?
I believe true equality is when everyone receives fair treatment and opportunity and that a person’s competence and contributions are considered – not their gender, race or religion. All too often, we see that a person's identity determines how they are treated – whether through pay, development opportunities, or otherwise. Equality doesn't mean shifting the marginalization to another group of people, it means removing the disparities that exist based on identity.
How can we achieve greater equality?
We all need to act. Equality won't happen overnight, and it isn't achievable by the efforts of one person or one group of people. We all need to take an active role in our actions, conversations and behaviors.
On an individual level, I think it’s important to understand our own biases that may lead to inequality. We offer an unconscious bias training as part of our employee onboarding program. It is mandatory for manager roles and up, but I encourage everyone to take advantage of this resource. We all have biases, and the only way to improve our behavior is through awareness and making changes based on what we learn.
For companies and organizations, it's essential to be transparent on where we are and our goals for improvement. For example, paying our employees equally for equal work is consistent with our values. Last year, we reported a less than 1 percent statistical difference in pay along gender lines for our global salaried, hourly and sales employees. In instances where we identified disparities, we examined the circumstances and responded accordingly.
Transparent reporting is an integral part of how we hold ourselves accountable to progress and how we raise the bar across the industry.
In thinking about International Women's Day and your role as the Women's Network global lead, what inspires you most?
I've been involved in the Women's Network for about 10 years. In total, we have 23 chapters – some are virtual, others are at manufacturing sites, but we have representation in each of the regions we serve. We are the biggest and the longest standing ERG at Boston Scientific, and to me, that's inspiring. The excitement, buy-in from our global teams and support from our leadership is empowering.
This year we asked the chapters to send us imagery and video of women celebrating #EachforEqual. The submissions were overwhelming and reflective of the vibrant and varied communities in which women live, work and thrive worldwide. It’s inspiring to witness the power of the people, across Boston Scientific, joining together to celebrate and advocate for this important issue.
Employees from around the globe demonstrated their commitment to #EachforEqual