Behaviouralism in politics implies a search for realism based on a scientific outlook. It refers to a break from the dominant concern with law, ideology and governmental institutions into an examination of all the structures and processes involved in politics and policy-making.
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GENESIS AND BACKGROUND:
Behaviouralism has been one of the most important developments in Political Science during the Twentieth Century. The study of political behaviour in the USA started when Graham Wallas and A.F. Bentley advocated the study of actual phenomenon of politics in 1908. Graham Wallas held that politics without the study of psychology of individuals was meaningless. As behaviour played an important role in political phenomenon, Bentley highlighted its significant role among groups.
He advocated his ideas at various conferences on political science during the 1920s. His effort was reinforced when an American journalist Frank Kent wrote a book titled ‘Political Behaviour’ in 1928. The President of the American Political Science Association Charles Merriam emphasised the need for looking at political behaviour during the 1925 conference.
During the next decade, many academics like Merriam, Lasswell and Truman started to strongly advocate the behavioural approach to political science. Herbert Tingsten wrote a book in 1937 titled ‘Political Behaviour: Studies in Election Statistics’, which considerably helped in popularising the term.
BEHAVIOURALISM AS A MOVEMENT:
Although stymied during the Second World War, the Behavioural Revolution re-entered the political science arena with full force after the war was over. Political scientists came under the influence of prominent sociologists like Mosca, Weber, Parsons, Merton, etc. and realised the urgent need for resolving social problems caused by the Second World War. This could not be done without examining the behaviour of concerned individuals.
Many scholars like Lasswell, Easton, Almond, Truman, Powell, Simon and Key joined hands to provide a fillip to this movement, because they were dissatisfied with the achievements of conventional political science. They conducted many praiseworthy research-works on the topic.
Committees set up by the American Political Science Association on ‘political behaviour‘ and ‘comparative politics‘ also did a commendable job in bringing about a behavioural revolution. This trend of rapid growth of Behaviouralism in politics continued for over twenty years after the end of Second World War. Nowadays it has become so important that the study of political issues remains incomplete without taking recourse to it.
BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH AS A THEORY:
According to Samuel J. Eldersveld, Behaviouralism may be defined as the “systematic search for political patterns through the formulation of empirical theory and the technical analysis and verification thereof”.
According to Heinz Eulau, “Modern behavioural science is eminently concerned not only with the acts of man, but also with his cognitive, effective and evaluative process. Behaviour in political field refers not simply to directly or indirectly observable political action, but also to those perceptual, motivational and attitudinal components of behaviour which make for man’s political identification, demands and his system of political benefits, values and goals”.
According to Robert Dahl, behavioural approach “Is an attempt to improve our understanding of points by seeking to explain the empirical aspects of political life by means of methods, theories and criteria of proof that are acceptable according to canons and assumptions of modern political science“.
David Truman contended that the new approach dealt with the verified principles of human behaviour, “through the use of methods similar to those of natural sciences”. Similarly, David Easton observed that despite shifts in emphasis, the underlying assumption of the behaviouralists is the same: to build “a science of politics modelled after the methodological assumptions of the natural sciences”.
According to the Committee on Political Behaviour of the American Political Science Association, “Roughly defined, the term political behaviour comprehends those actions and interactions of men and groups which are involved in the process of governing…It is rather an orientation, a point of view which aims at understanding all the phenomena of government in terms of the observed and observable behaviour of men… The ultimate goal of the student of political behaviour is the development of a science of the political process”.
According to Dwight Waldo, “Behaviouralism was not and is not a clear and firm creed, an agreed upon set of postulates and rules”. Some general characteristics of Behaviouralism are as follows:
(a) a movement of protest against the inadequacies of conventional political science, led by the American political scientists;
(b) it has made the individual the focus of attention in the study of political phenomena;
(c) it stresses the special importance of scientific outlook and objectivity in the study of political science;
(d) it is considered as a methodological revolution in political science;
(e) it emphasises on inter-disciplinary study of political science; the possible effects of social, cultural and personal factors on political behaviour should be taken into account, as the wider context in which political action occurs cannot be neglected;
(f) it aims to build a scientific theory with the help of observation and experimentation, which may predict things and be applied universally.
David Easton, an important exponent of the behaviouralist school of political science, has highlighted eight features of Behaviouralism. These are: regularities in human behaviour; a preference for verification and testing rather than taking things for granted; application of correct techniques for acquisition and interpretation of scientific data; emphasis on measurement and quantification for predicting a political result; belief in value-free study; belief in systematic study of political science, which should be ‘theory-oriented’ and ‘theory-directed’; insistence on ‘pure-science’ approach; belief that social and political phenomena cannot be studied in isolation and therefore an inter-disciplinary approach is crucial.
ACHIEVEMENTS OF BEHAVIOURALISM:
Vigorous attempts have been made by the behaviouralists to lift political science to the level of pure sciences like physics and chemistry. As a consequence, there has been significant increase in the use of empirical and quantitative methods as well as attempts to evolve conceptual frameworks, models, theories, meta-theories and paradigms. The achievements of Behaviouralism can therefore be traced in two main areas: research methodology and theory building.
The behaviouralists achieved significant success in developing and refining the tools and techniques of research in political science. Improvements in the areas of
(a) content-analysis,
(b) case-analysis,
(c) interviews and observations, and
(d) statistical applications have been particularly remarkable.
Most sophisticated quantitative techniques have been used in empirical research projects based on Behaviouralism. The behaviouralists also made significant headways in the area of rigorous and systematic comparative content analysis. Research in comparative politics has been facilitated considerably by undertaking cross-national investigations.
The methods of interviewing and observations in Behaviouralism have also led to a tremendous improvement in sophistication of research methodology. Increasing sophistication has been observed in the designing of survey questions and questionnaires as well as in the substantive aspects of interviewing.
The greatest refinement came in the sphere of sample survey, which became a basic instrument of social research in its own right. Remarkable improvements have also been brought about in the field of statistical applications. Developments in this area have led to the growth of ‘causal modelling’, whereby the path of causation within a system of variables can be tested.
The contribution of Behaviouralism towards theory-building, however, has not been significant. This is, because, it is mainly concerned with individual and group behaviour and focuses less and less on state, government and institutions. According to Parsons, the developments in the field of Behaviouralism in politics have been “a good deal more revolutionary in the realm of technique than in that of validated and expanded theory”.
CRITICISM OF BEHAVIOURALISM IN POLITICS:
Behaviouralists have been criticised mainly on the following grounds:
(a) Behaviouralism is concerned more with techniques than results;
(b) Behaviouralism is directed at pseudo-politics, as it advocates personal or private interests at the cost of universal interests;
(c) behaviouralists have neglected the effects of institutions on society and targeted their efforts mostly on behavioural aspects of individuals and groups;
(d) Politics can never be value-free as claimed by the behaviouralists;
(e) behaviouralists have been focusing mainly on static subjects rather than on current problems; they have ignored urgent problems because these did not suite their study;
(f) there are difficulties associated with the ever-changing behaviour of man and no correct prediction can be made about future behaviour of individuals and groups;
(g) behaviouralist approach to political science depends so much on other branches of social science like sociology and anthropology that the very identity, integrity and autonomy of political science is threatened;
(h) the behaviouralists place too much emphasis on political behaviour of man but do not apply their research to current problems;
(i) Behaviouralism provides only a limited knowledge about the political behaviour of man, but does not provide real knowledge to solve urgent problems facing the world.
The traditionalists among the political scientists have also levelled the following criticisms about Behaviouralism, some of which may overlap with those noted in the preceding paragraphs:
(a) behaviouralists assume a mechanical view of man motivated by self-interest alone; they ignore human values and norms;
(b) they ignore bigger issues of the world;
(c) they ignore theoretical aspects of the subject and is concerned about techniques only;
(d) human behaviour cannot be generalised as assumed by the behaviouralists;
(e) behaviouralists give more attention to statistical figures than human ideals;
(f) study of politics can never be value-free;
(g) the analysis of behaviouralists is defective because they consider American institutions as the best in the world and use Behaviouralism as a tool to prove the worth of those institutions.
POST-BEHAVIOURALISM:
In 1969, David Easton declared the end of behavioural revolution and the beginning of a new era in the study of politics, popularly called ‘Post-Behaviouralism’. As claimed by Easton, its main thesis is ‘relevance‘ and ‘action‘. The post-behaviouralist movement in political science has reopened the issue of fact-value separation.
It claims that facts and values are closely intertwined with each other and one cannot separate them in political science except under very trivial circumstances. According to this school of thought, political scientists need not abdicate the spirit of their discipline at the altar of science or any other empiricism.
DYNAMIC APPROACH:
The behaviouralists have argued that science had some ideal commitments and they shared those commitments of science. But the post-behaviouralists think that technical research and scientific knowledge as pursued by the behaviouralists should not be cut-off from the realities of life. It should be linked to urgent social problems with the aim of solving them. The approach of political scientists should be dynamic and their objective should never be mere stability or maintenance of status-quo, they opine.
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.
On March 31, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its annual Gender Gap Report 2021. The Global Gender Gap report is an annual report released by the WEF. The gender gap is the difference between women and men as reflected in social, political, intellectual, cultural, or economic attainments or attitudes. The gap between men and women across health, education, politics, and economics widened for the first time since records began in 2006.
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The Global gender gap index aims to measure this gap in four key areas : health, education, economics, and politics. It surveys economies to measure gender disparity by collating and analyzing data that fall under four indices : economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
The 2021 Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks 156 countries on their progress towards gender parity. The index aims to serve as a compass to track progress on relative gaps between women and men in health, education, economy, and politics.
Although no country has achieved full gender parity, the top two countries (Iceland and Finland) have closed at least 85% of their gap, and the remaining seven countries (Lithuania, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Rwanda, and Ireland) have closed at least 80% of their gap. Geographically, the global top 10 continues to be dominated by Nordic countries, with —Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden—in the top five.
The top 10 is completed by one country from Asia Pacific (New Zealand 4th), two Sub-Saharan countries (Namibia, 6th and Rwanda, 7th, one country from Eastern Europe (the new entrant to the top 10, Lithuania, 8th), and another two Western European countries (Ireland, 9th, and Switzerland, 10th, another country in the top-10 for the first time).There is a relatively equitable distribution of available income, resources, and opportunities for men and women in these countries. The tremendous gender gaps are identified primarily in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.
Here, we can discuss the overall global gender gap scores across the index’s four main components : Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
The indicators of the four main components are
(1) Economic Participation and Opportunity:
o Labour force participation rate,
o wage equality for similar work,
o estimated earned income,
o Legislators, senior officials, and managers,
o Professional and technical workers.
(2) Educational Attainment:
o Literacy rate (%)
o Enrollment in primary education (%)
o Enrollment in secondary education (%)
o Enrollment in tertiary education (%).
(3) Health and Survival:
o Sex ratio at birth (%)
o Healthy life expectancy (years).
(4) Political Empowerment:
o Women in Parliament (%)
o Women in Ministerial positions (%)
o Years with a female head of State (last 50 years)
o The share of tenure years.
The objective is to shed light on which factors are driving the overall average decline in the global gender gap score. The analysis results show that this year’s decline is mainly caused by a reversal in performance on the Political Empowerment gap.
Global Trends and Outcomes:
– Globally, this year, i.e., 2021, the average distance completed to gender parity gap is 68% (This means that the remaining gender gap to close stands at 32%) a step back compared to 2020 (-0.6 percentage points). These figures are mainly driven by a decline in the performance of large countries. On its current trajectory, it will now take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide.
– The gender gap in Political Empowerment remains the largest of the four gaps tracked, with only 22% closed to date, having further widened since the 2020 edition of the report by 2.4 percentage points. Across the 156 countries covered by the index, women represent only 26.1% of some 35,500 Parliament seats and 22.6% of over 3,400 Ministers worldwide. In 81 countries, there has never been a woman head of State as of January 15, 2021. At the current rate of progress, the World Economic Forum estimates that it will take 145.5 years to attain gender parity in politics.
– The gender gap in Economic Participation and Opportunity remains the second-largest of the four key gaps tracked by the index. According to this year’s index results, 58% of this gap has been closed so far. The gap has seen marginal improvement since the 2020 edition of the report, and as a result, we estimate that it will take another 267.6 years to close.
– Gender gaps in Educational Attainment and Health and Survival are nearly closed. In Educational Attainment, 95% of this gender gap has been closed globally, with 37 countries already attaining gender parity. However, the ‘last mile’ of progress is proceeding slowly. The index estimates that it will take another 14.2 years to close this gap on its current trajectory completely.
In Health and Survival, 96% of this gender gap has been closed, registering a marginal decline since last year (not due to COVID-19), and the time to close this gap remains undefined. For both education and health, while progress is higher than economy and politics in the global data, there are important future implications of disruptions due to the pandemic and continued variations in quality across income, geography, race, and ethnicity.
India-Specific Findings:
India had slipped 28 spots to rank 140 out of the 156 countries covered. The pandemic causing a disproportionate impact on women jeopardizes rolling back the little progress made in the last decades-forcing more women to drop off the workforce and leaving them vulnerable to domestic violence.
India’s poor performance on the Global Gender Gap report card hints at a serious wake-up call and learning lessons from the Nordic region for the Government and policy makers.
Within the 156 countries covered, women hold only 26 percent of Parliamentary seats and 22 percent of Ministerial positions. India, in some ways, reflects this widening gap, where the number of Ministers declined from 23.1 percent in 2019 to 9.1 percent in 2021. The number of women in Parliament stands low at 14.4 percent. In India, the gender gap has widened to 62.5 %, down from 66.8% the previous year.
It is mainly due to women’s inadequate representation in politics, technical and leadership roles, a decrease in women’s labor force participation rate, poor healthcare, lagging female to male literacy ratio, and income inequality.
The gap is the widest on the political empowerment dimension, with economic participation and opportunity being next in line. However, the gap on educational attainment and health and survival has been practically bridged.
India is the third-worst performer among South Asian countries, with Pakistan and Afghanistan trailing and Bangladesh being at the top. The report states that the country fared the worst in political empowerment, regressing from 23.9% to 9.1%.
Its ranking on the health and survival dimension is among the five worst performers. The economic participation and opportunity gap saw a decline of 3% compared to 2020, while India’s educational attainment front is in the 114th position.
India has deteriorated to 51st place from 18th place in 2020 on political empowerment. Still, it has slipped to 155th position from 150th position in 2020 on health and survival, 151st place in economic participation and opportunity from 149th place, and 114th place for educational attainment from 112th.
In 2020 reports, among the 153 countries studied, India is the only country where the economic gender gap of 64.6% is larger than the political gender gap of 58.9%. In 2021 report, among the 156 countries, the economic gender gap of India is 67.4%, 3.8% gender gap in education, 6.3% gap in health and survival, and 72.4% gender gap in political empowerment. In health and survival, the gender gap of the sex ratio at birth is above 9.1%, and healthy life expectancy is almost the same.
Discrimination against women has also been reflected in Health and Survival subindex statistics. With 93.7% of this gap closed to date, India ranks among the bottom five countries in this subindex. The wide sex ratio at birth gaps is due to the high incidence of gender-based sex-selective practices. Besides, more than one in four women has faced intimate violence in her lifetime.The gender gap in the literacy rate is above 20.1%.
Yet, gender gaps persist in literacy : one-third of women are illiterate (34.2%) than 17.6% of men. In political empowerment, globally, women in Parliament is at 128th position and gender gap of 83.2%, and 90% gap in a Ministerial position. The gap in wages equality for similar work is above 51.8%. On health and survival, four large countries Pakistan, India, Vietnam, and China, fare poorly, with millions of women there not getting the same access to health as men.
The pandemic has only slowed down in its tracks the progress India was making towards achieving gender parity. The country urgently needs to focus on “health and survival,” which points towards a skewed sex ratio because of the high incidence of gender-based sex-selective practices and women’s economic participation. Women’s labour force participation rate and the share of women in technical roles declined in 2020, reducing the estimated earned income of women, one-fifth of men.
Learning from the Nordic region, noteworthy participation of women in politics, institutions, and public life is the catalyst for transformational change. Women need to be equal participants in the labour force to pioneer the societal changes the world needs in this integral period of transition.
Every effort must be directed towards achieving gender parallelism by facilitating women in leadership and decision-making positions. Social protection programmes should be gender-responsive and account for the differential needs of women and girls. Research and scientific literature also provide unequivocal evidence that countries led by women are dealing with the pandemic more effectively than many others.
Gendered inequality, thereby, is a global concern. India should focus on targeted policies and earmarked public and private investments in care and equalized access. Women are not ready to wait for another century for equality. It’s time India accelerates its efforts and fight for an inclusive, equal, global recovery.
India will not fully develop unless both women and men are equally supported to reach their full potential. There are risks, violations, and vulnerabilities women face just because they are women. Most of these risks are directly linked to women’s economic, political, social, and cultural disadvantages in their daily lives. It becomes acute during crises and disasters.
With the prevalence of gender discrimination, and social norms and practices, women become exposed to the possibility of child marriage, teenage pregnancy, child domestic work, poor education and health, sexual abuse, exploitation, and violence. Many of these manifestations will not change unless women are valued more.
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]2021 WEF Global Gender Gap report, which confirmed its 2016 finding of a decline in worldwide progress towards gender parity.
Over 2.8 billion women are legally restricted from having the same choice of jobs as men. As many as 104 countries still have laws preventing women from working in specific jobs, 59 countries have no laws on sexual harassment in the workplace, and it is astonishing that a handful of countries still allow husbands to legally stop their wives from working.
Globally, women’s participation in the labour force is estimated at 63% (as against 94% of men who participate), but India’s is at a dismal 25% or so currently. Most women are in informal and vulnerable employment—domestic help, agriculture, etc—and are always paid less than men.
Recent reports from Assam suggest that women workers in plantations are paid much less than men and never promoted to supervisory roles. The gender wage gap is about 24% globally, and women have lost far more jobs than men during lockdowns.
The problem of gender disparity is compounded by hurdles put up by governments, society and businesses: unequal access to social security schemes, banking services, education, digital services and so on, even as a glass ceiling has kept leadership roles out of women’s reach.
Yes, many governments and businesses had been working on parity before the pandemic struck. But the global gender gap, defined by differences reflected in the social, political, intellectual, cultural and economic attainments or attitudes of men and women, will not narrow in the near future without all major stakeholders working together on a clear agenda—that of economic growth by inclusion.
The WEF report estimates 135 years to close the gap at our current rate of progress based on four pillars: educational attainment, health, economic participation and political empowerment.
India has slipped from rank 112 to 140 in a single year, confirming how hard women were hit by the pandemic. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two Asian countries that fared worse.
Here are a few things we must do:
One, frame policies for equal-opportunity employment. Use technology and artificial intelligence to eliminate biases of gender, caste, etc, and select candidates at all levels on merit. Numerous surveys indicate that women in general have a better chance of landing jobs if their gender is not known to recruiters.
Two, foster a culture of gender sensitivity. Take a review of current policies and move from gender-neutral to gender-sensitive. Encourage and insist on diversity and inclusion at all levels, and promote more women internally to leadership roles. Demolish silos to let women grab potential opportunities in hitherto male-dominant roles. Work-from-home has taught us how efficiently women can manage flex-timings and productivity.
Three, deploy corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for the education and skilling of women and girls at the bottom of the pyramid. CSR allocations to toilet building, the PM-Cares fund and firms’ own trusts could be re-channelled for this.
Four, get more women into research and development (R&D) roles. A study of over 4,000 companies found that more women in R&D jobs resulted in radical innovation. It appears women score far higher than men in championing change. If you seek growth from affordable products and services for low-income groups, women often have the best ideas.
Five, break barriers to allow progress. Cultural and structural issues must be fixed. Unconscious biases and discrimination are rampant even in highly-esteemed organizations. Establish fair and transparent human resource policies.
Six, get involved in local communities to engage them. As Michael Porter said, it is not possible for businesses to sustain long-term shareholder value without ensuring the welfare of the communities they exist in. It is in the best interest of enterprises to engage with local communities to understand and work towards lowering cultural and other barriers in society. It will also help connect with potential customers, employees and special interest groups driving the gender-equity agenda and achieve better diversity.