Breaking the unconscious bias this International Women's Day
Good Return partners from local finance organisations make the #BreaktheBias post
Tuesday, March 8, was International Women’s Day, when the world celebrates the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women. It is also a day to reflect on the journey ahead to achieve gender equality.
One of the core themes for International Women’s Day 2022 is #BreaktheBias. Biases can be both conscious and unconscious. In the case of conscious or explicit bias, the person is clear about his or her feelings and attitudes, and related behaviours are conducted with intent. Unconscious bias, on the other hand, is when we make inaccurate judgements or decisions on the basis of prior experience, assumptions and interpretation and we are not always aware we are doing it. Bias can give individuals and groups both unearned advantage and unearned disadvantage in life.
For Good Return the theme of #BreaktheBias has never been more relevant to our twin goals of achieving ‘financial inclusion’ and women’s economic empowerment in low-income countries.
Financial inclusion means everyone has a right to access financial services which are appropriate, affordable and timely no matter who you are, where you come from or where you live. However, for many people in the Asia-Pacific unconscious bias in the financial sector persists, creating obstacles for women and other historically marginalised groups, including people living with disabilities.
Here are some ways ‘unconscious bias’ can affect women trying access finance and build their business and livelihoods:
When trying to start a bank account or apply for a loan, the bank may request to speak to a male or husband instead. This gendered unconscious bias builds on historical prejudices in which males are regarded as the traditional financial controller in the family and business owners, and women are considered the primary carers. This often results in collateral and assets being in the male’s name.
An unconscious bias that women do not have the necessary business training or skills to successfully run a business in comparison to men is common. This unconscious bias builds upon the systematic bias against women having equal access to educational opportunities and training.
Unconscious biases may be internalised and women can lack the confidence to start or grow a business.
When these conscious and unconscious biases prevail many women may become ‘unbanked’ meaning they cannot access safe, affordable or timely financial products. Women may be forced to seek high-risk and unsustainable sources of finance, including loans from backstreet lenders, borrowing from family members or keeping physical cash in the home. In 2020 it was estimated that half of the population in Southeast Asia was unbanked with no access to financial products (Fitch Ratings Report 2020).
Good Return works with local Financial Service Providers to tackle unconscious bias in the financial sector.
Good Return inherently takes up the call to Break Biases often experienced by women in low-income countries. Good Return’s programs support women entrepreneurs through access to sustainable capital and loans, and business training to build their own livelihoods and pathways out of poverty.
However, we know that in order to make the largest impact, our programs must also be underpinned by a wider commitment to #breakthe (unconscious) biases that place roadblocks in the way of women building businesses. Simply working with women entrepreneurs or investing in women-led businesses isn't enough. So we actively collaborate with local partner Financial Service Providers to tackle ongoing unconscious biases and socially exclusionary practices within their organisations and wider financial system.
Loan Guarantees
Underpinned by a commitment to women’s economic empowerment, Good Return’s programs inherently address gendered unconscious biases. For example, Good Return’s Impact Investment Fund provides loan guarantees to local FSPs, Chamroeun and CROWDE, to provide capital to women who lack formal banking history or collateral. This strives to empower women entrepreneurs and position their businesses as sustainable and exciting opportunities for investment, ultimately challenging the many biases against women entrepreneurs.
RIF Academy[1]
Good Return also works within the national financial ecosystems to support local FSPs to address unconscious bias. Good Return runs RIF Academy (Responsible Inclusive Finance Academy) an e-learning platform designed to improve the responsiveness and social performance of our partner FSPs. The e-learning courses cover client protection, monitoring and evaluation, social performance, staff capacity and social inclusion. Courses that strive to break unconscious biases include ‘Inclusive Impact Investing in the Agricultural Sector’, ‘LGBTI Equality for Microfinance Institutions (Khmer)’ and ‘Gender Equality for Microfinance Institutions (Khmer)’. In 2021 5,712 partner FSP staff completed a course on RIF Academy.
Gender Self Assessments
In 2020 and 2021 Good Return enjoyed working with local partners Chamroeun and CROWDE to improve their practices and financial products through collaborative Gender Self-Assessment (GSAs). The purpose of a GSA is to explore the current organisational practices and culture to identify gaps and develop a Gender Action Plan to embed new policies and practices to improve gender equality integration, including addressing gendered conscious and unconscious bias’ in the workplace. For example, Gender Action Plans promote gender diversity in leadership and equality within organisational policies and structures and dispels gender stereotypes that limit work roles or opportunities, providing benefits for both women and men in the process.
Tackling internal unconscious bias at Good Return
Good Return acknowledges that tackling bias is a complex process and that Good Return is still on its own internal journey to counter unconscious bias. In 2021 Good Return created and delivered an unconscious bias training workshop in English and Khmer for staff and volunteers to start important conversations about unconscious bias, in the context of gender, disability and race in the workplace. Good Return has also taken actions to reduce the impact of unconscious biases in our existing processes. These include ensuring that all our roles have competitive, openly advertised recruitment, and are assessed by a hiring team to mitigate individual biases. Good Return has also developed e-learning modules on gender equity, disability inclusion and cultural diversity for all staff and volunteers and made a recent change to our strategy process to be country-led rather than centrally driven, to better represent the diversity of our staff and the communities we work with.
This IWD we ask you to #breakthebias with us!
