International Women’s Day (IWD) 2025 is celebrated this Saturday, 8th March. Every year, IWD picks a theme for the day. For 2025, the theme is ‘Accelerate Action’ chosen, according to IWD’s website, ‘because it emphasises the urgency of making faster, more effective strides toward gender equality.’

The theme has a strong application and resonance for the HR community. Gender equality in the workplace is a key issue. The theme calls on HR to do more – ‘moving from awareness to action, focusing on measurable outcomes’. Effective training is HR’s bread and butter. It will certainly tick the ‘awareness’ box but may, if delivered in a vacuum, lead to precious little in the way of ‘action’.

Here are our top tips for how HR can effectively ‘Accelerate Action’ on gender equality within their own businesses:

  1. Comply with gender pay gap reporting and act on the data

UK employers with 250 or more employees must publish their gender pay gap data. Businesses for whom reporting is not mandated should consider gathering this data voluntarily – it can be used to illuminate areas of gender disparity within businesses. Data gathering alone (whether mandatory or voluntary) isn’t enough. To ‘accelerate action’ HR should:

  • Develop clear action plans to close pay gaps, including reviewing bonus structures, promotion rates, and recruitment processes.
  • Communicate progress transparently and set measurable targets.

The toolkit created by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in partnership with the Chartered Management Institute for businesses wanting to act to close their gender pay gap is a useful resource. It can be accessed here.

  1. Review and improve family-friendly policies

It remains a bald fact that women continue to shoulder the primary burden in the care of children. They are also more likely to have taken time away from their work and chosen careers in order to have and care for children. To get the best out of women who are parents in the workplace HR should:

  • Lobby for enhanced parental leave policies to support shared caregiving responsibilities.
  • Promote flexible working arrangements and remove bias against part-time roles or job shares.
  • Support returners with structured re-entry programs and career development initiatives.

  1. Make your grievance and harassment policies meaningful

This is now all the more imperative given the new positive duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. Women should feel empowered to speak-up about poor treatment in the workplace and the workforce as a whole should be crystal clear on what is expected of them. HR should:

  • Ensure anti-harassment policies are well-publicised and clearly outline reporting procedures.
  • Train managers on how to handle complaints effectively and sensitively.
  • Proactively foster a culture where inappropriate behaviour is challenged and addressed swiftly.

  1. Consider gender-sensitive hiring and promotion practices

To accelerate workplace gender equality, HR should:

  • Use structured interview processes to minimise unconscious bias.
  • Whenever a vacancy arises, consider whether women are disadvantaged or have a disproportionately low participation in a role. If they are, it might be possible to increase female participation or reduce that disadvantage by using positive action in the recruitment process. If a fair recruitment process results in a ‘tie’ between a man and a woman, you could choose the woman, provided that you are ready to show that the decision was proportionate to achieving the aim of minimising the disadvantage of women or encouraging their participation in the activity.
  • Consider whether ‘encouragement and training’ (a permitted form of positive action) could be used to remove an identified female disadvantage in the workplace or where you assess that they have low participation. For example, a lack of female representation in senior management could be ‘encouraged’ by offering management training to women.

  1. Engage male allies and senior leadership

Gender equality isn’t just a women’s issue – HR can actively involve male leaders and employees by:

  • Implementing allyship programs and leadership accountability measures.
  • Encouraging senior leaders to act as visible champions of gender equality.

  1. Foster a culture of transparency and accountability

Moving beyond policies, HR should:

  • Publish clear diversity goals (always being careful not to overstep the mark and stray into positive discrimination) and track progress regularly.
  • Create employee-led networks that demonstrate that you really ‘see’ women in the workplace (e.g. women’s networks, parent support groups, Menopause support groups).
  • Use surveys to understand workplace challenges and act on employee feedback.

Summary

IWD should kickstart ongoing initiatives. It should not be viewed by businesses as a one-off annual event. HR should use the top tips set out above to provide a year-round focus for accelerating action toward gender equality. The goal should be lasting and measurable change.