GP vows to wipe out gender bias from workplace

Humans are, very naturally, prone to biases. According to the findings of a study by the United Nations, almost 90 per cent of humans are biased in any form.

Taking a cue from this, Grameenphone celebrated the International Women’s Day on Tuesday, reflecting on its organisation, continuing dialogue with its employees, and instilling bias-free organisational culture across the value chain, it said in a press release on Wednesday.  

According to the release, Grameenphone is already promoting the idea of a bias-free workplace where a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace for all is inspired.

With that in mind, Grameenphone has done extensive research; the study findings say seven workplace biases against women need to be addressed and eradicated.

The biases include - gender overshadows performance, women don’t earn for a living - they earn for luxury, sales and tech is a masculine field, women cannot be top leaders, women are good at a desk job, women cannot deal with difficult tasks, and women gets less competent after marriage and maternity break.

At a discussion organised to mark the Women’s Day at the capital’s GP House, the discussants shed light on the biases and shared their experiences. In addition, the leadership team shared their opinions about existing biases and how to overcome those.   

GP CEO Yasir Azman said, “This is the right time to break all kinds of bias against women because we need to march forward to a future that will be diverse and sustainable. At Grameenphone, we always focus on ensuring a discrimination-free and inclusive working environment for our female colleagues.

“To take another step towards a gender-equal workplace, we have sorted out seven biases against women, which we will work on in the coming days. We believe we can break free from all these biases if we work together.”   

The panelists also highlighted what can be done to address these biases and ensure a bias-free workplace for all.