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Inclusive language and gender equality policy 2021 - 2024

Introduction

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According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, gender equality is understood as "the existence of equal opportunities and rights between women and men in the private and public spheres that gives them and guarantees the possibility of leading the life they want” (UNESCO, 2014, p. 104).

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eScire undertakes to follow this and other opinions regarding gender equality and the arguments that encompasses said subject, both in formal and informal communication through the different channels (written, verbal and visual) and having the following objectives:

 

  1. Avoid the use of discriminatory expressions.

  2. Respect the genders of all those who have some relationship (direct and indirect) with the company.

  • Make gender visible when the context and situation require it.

  • Not making gender visible when the context and the situation require it.

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The eScire team must follow these policies immediately after their publication (March 30, 2021), and all materials must abide by the recommendations suggested here in the different media and channels (presentations, quotes, websites, infographics, etc.). Legal documents are excluded.

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The gender equality and communication strategies to be respected by eScire are the following:
 

inclusive language

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The United Nations, through guidelines for the use of gender-inclusive language in Spanish, recommends the following:

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It is important not to confuse grammatical gender (category applied to words), gender as a sociocultural construct (roles, behaviors, activities and attributes that a given society at a given time considers appropriate for human beings of each sex) and the biological sex (biological characteristic of living beings). (UN, 2019, para. 6).

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Having identified the difference between grammatical gender, sociocultural gender and biological sex, eScire adheres to inclusive language in the following way:
 

  • Typographic strategies ("x”, “e”, “@” or "o/a”) for formal and informal, verbal, visual and written communication in internal and/or external communication channels, social networks and email. Legal documents are excluded.

  • Adequacy of the form of expression, this can be achieved by using collective nouns (the organization, the audience), specifying genders when necessary for communication (eg “all and all” instead of “everyone”), using unmarked adjectives of gender (eg “youth job performance” instead of “youth job performance”, or “Managers were present at the meeting” instead of “Managers were present at the meeting”).

  • Make use of pronouns that do not distinguish between genders: "those who want to participate in the call can contact the responsible area" instead of "those interested in participating are welcome to consult their doubts with those responsible for the call".


empowerment


The UN Women Office, UN Women Mexico Headquarters, proposes a series of seven principles to be followed in order to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women in all  sectors.  

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In this way, it is expressed as a fundamental action to work on the empowerment of women within the economic and business sector, to guarantee  the  building strong economies, establishing stable and fair societies, as well as achieving internationally agreed development, sustainability and human rights goals.  

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The central objective of these principles proposes “improving the quality of life of women, men, families and communities; and promote business practices and objectives” (UN Women Mexico, 2011, para. 1).  

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The 7 principles proposed by UN Women are broken down below, and the actions to be taken by eScire are explained:  

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  • Promote gender equality from management to the highest level.

- eScire establishes as a first action in favor of the empowerment of women and gender equality, the publication and monitoring of these policies within the company.  

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  • Treat all men and women equally at work – respect and uphold human rights and non-discrimination.

- eScire is committed to offering equal pay and benefits for work of equal value.  

- Ensure that work policies and practices are exempt from any gender discrimination.  

- Implement hiring and employment protection that integrates the gender dimension, hiring and appointing  proactively to women in management and responsibility positions, as well as within the board of directors.

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  • Ensure the health, safety and well-being of all workers.

- eScire, it is proclaimed  in favor of the  zero tolerance towards any form of violence in the workplace that includes verbal and physical abuse. 
- Promote and implement actions to  prevent sexual harassment.
- Through dialogue with employees, identify and deal with security issues, including the transfer of women to and from their workplace and all those related to the company's scope of action. 
- Create awareness campaigns about forms of violence in the business environment. 
- Establish a protocol of action that contemplates the laws and policies in the face of labor exploitation.  

 

  • Promote education, training and professional development of women.  

- eScire will constantly train its staff, in order to promote gender equality and accessibility to job growth.  

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  • Carry out business development practices, supply chain and marketing in favor of the empowerment of women.

- eScire will work to extend business relations to companies run by women, including small businesses and women entrepreneurs. 
- Through its events, eScire proposes to recognize women and share their career in the field of research and new technologies.

 

  • Promote equality through community initiatives and lobbying.  

- eScire is committed to upholding gender equality and collaborating with partners, suppliers and community leaders to promote inclusion. 
- Work with community representatives and official bodies, among others, in order to eradicate discrimination and exploitation.
- Promote and recognize female leadership and their contribution in their communities, as well as guarantee sufficient representation of women in any community consultation mechanism.  

 

  • Evaluate and disseminate the progress made in favor of gender equality.  

- eScire, is committed to disseminating business policies and implementation plans in favor of gender equality. 
- Evaluate and disseminate the progress made, internally and externally, through the use of data disaggregated by sex.  

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Institutional Culture


eScire is aware of and respects the free culture, way of thinking, beliefs and freedom of expression of each person that makes up the company, however, in order to guarantee a better and healthy coexistence for the team there will be behaviors that must be modified within of the organization, which are:

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  1. Do not use expressions with a negative connotation, assuming behaviors for a certain gender, eg, Arturo looks effeminate, resist like a man.

  2. Avoid the use of nouns/expressions that propagate stereotypes, for example: Secretaries manifested

  3. Actions, comments or expressions (physical, visual or verbal) that disrespect or discriminate against any person (members of the company, customers, etc.). 

  4. Eliminate any type of physical, verbal or visual expression that has sexual, aggressive connotations or does not respect the consent of the people involved.

  5. Develop empathy with the different social and/or emotional situations presented by the people who make up the work team. This implies the non-reduction of importance for said situations (eg “I don't feel that my comment was so serious that I cried”, “it seems to me that you are exaggerating due to the sustained discussion”).


References

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