Building gender equity by design: turning leadership reflection into action

Advancing gender equity requires more than just good intentions, it requires structured reflection and accountable leadership. To move to where they want to be tomorrow, leaders require a clear view of where their organisation stands today, including where structural change is still needed. In order to support this process, we have developed a self-assessment tool designed to help leaders identify strengths, gaps and priority actions across key dimensions of gender equity including leadership commitment, strategy, data, sponsorship and organisational culture. Following its internal launch within Forvis Mazars Group, we are now sharing the tool externally to contribute to collective learning and support more systematic progress across organisations. 

To anchor the self-assessment in practice, we spoke with leaders and representatives across our firm in Angola, France and Switzerland about the policies and programmes they have implemented locally to advance gender equity. Their experiences illustrate the types of structural actions and enabling conditions the tool is designed to surface, providing concrete examples of how gender equity is being embedded across our organisation. 

We hope you find these spotlights useful and that they help contribute to wider discussions on the ways in which businesses can accelerate gender equity.  

Modelling inclusive leadership in Switzerland 

When we reviewed our leadership pipeline and observed trends over time, it became clear that women were underrepresented in key decision-making spaces. This wasn’t just a single observation; it was a pattern that highlighted the importance of visible role models and diverse perspectives at the management level. To address this, we implemented a ‘no all-male round table’ policy four years ago, a deliberate leadership choice, to move from intent to action. The goal was simple but intentional: to ensure that every leadership discussion includes diverse representation, particularly female leaders, so that varying viewpoints are taken on board to in turn influence culture, decisions and opportunities across the organisation. 

At first, some colleagues, including myself, were curious and even a little sceptical. Would these roundtables really make a difference? Would they change the way decisions were made or impact the culture in a meaningful way? After experiencing this approach first-hand, it became clear that they did. Bringing fresh insights to familiar issues fundamentally shifts conversations, challenges assumptions and creates a healthier level of constructive tension that brings forward insights that might otherwise be overlooked. Even with the best intentions, we realised how easy it is to fall into unconscious bias traps and how powerful it is to interrupt them through structural design rather than goodwill alone. 

Over time, this approach has influenced broader practices across our offices in Switzerland. Conversations about promotions, assessments and flexible career paths have evolved and women are now visible in leadership discussions in ways that weren’t previously the case. The policy has also informed our people strategy, with more than 20 projects over the next three years aimed at making the firm more inclusive, attractive and supportive.  

If I could offer one piece of advice: what leaders consistently prioritise will shape outcomes. For us, it wasn’t just about adding women to leadership roundtables, it was about making sure inclusion is a non-negotiable part of how leadership works. It didn’t just change those meetings, it changed mindsets, recruitment practices, promotions and how we think about absence policies. The lessons learnt from this process around self-awareness, reflection and intentional action, are applicable wherever leaders are working to accelerate gender equity. 

Angelo Accardi, CEO, Forvis Mazars in Switzerland 

Building a sustainable and inclusive talent pipeline in Angola 

In Angola, structural gender imbalances, particularly in technical, audit and outsourcing functions, continue to limit equitable access to leadership roles. Recognising both these challenges and the broader economic barriers that affect access to opportunity, we defined a deliberate and data-informed approach to strengthening our talent pipeline.  

As part of our broader talent strategy, we set strategic diversity goals for recruitment, beginning with the expansion of the talent pool. We committed to ensuring that at least 45% of applicants for new roles come from underrepresented groups, providing women and other talented candidates with equitable access to opportunities while maintaining rigorous selection standards. In parallel, we focused on strengthening female representation in senior roles across teams, particularly within technical, audit and outsourcing services, to ensure visible role models and signal inclusive leadership pathways.  

We complemented these efforts with targeted outreach to candidates beyond traditional recruitment channels, including individuals from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Through structured internship and early career programmes, we focus on identifying potential and developing capabilities, supporting long-term employability while strengthening the future talent pipeline.  

Leadership alignment was a critical enabler of this approach. By grounding our strategy in data—both internal workforce insights and broader market evidence on the performance of diverse teams, we ensured early sponsorship and consistent engagement across departments. Clear governance and progress monitoring mechanisms support continuous improvement.  

One key lesson from this journey is that inclusion doesn’t happen by accident. It requires deliberate design, disciplined execution and sustained commitment. When organisations broaden where and how they recruit and ensure that women are not only represented but fully supported and visible in leadership, they strengthen the effectiveness and resilience of their teams. More than a strategic initiative, this represents a long‑term investment that fosters fairer workplaces, enables the full potential of diverse talent and contributes to a more equitable future for the organisation and the communities it serves.  

Jandira Almeida, Senior HR Representative, Forvis Mazars in Angola  

Supporting parents to advance gender equity in France 

Focusing parental policies only on women can unintentionally reinforce stigma around taking leave, returning to work and career progression. When caregiving is treated primarily as a women’s issue, it can slow careers and deepen inequalities, including the well documented ‘motherhood penalty’, while fathers may benefit from a perceived ‘fatherhood bonus’. To address this, we introduced gender neutral parental policies across our offices in France, designed to support all parents and encourage shared responsibility from the outset. 

One key pillar of our policy is the second parent leave. While the legal entitlement in France is 28 days, our firm extends this by an additional 42 days, bringing the total to nearly two and a half months. Importantly, the policy is framed as second parent leave rather than paternity leave, signalling that caregiving responsibilities are shared. This gender-neutral approach also reflects diverse family structures, including same-sex couples and non-traditional parenting arrangements, reinforcing that caregiving is not gendered. Although participation is voluntary, the programme has encouraged more men to take meaningful time off, helping to normalise shared parental responsibility and reduce the career penalty often borne by women. 

Secondly, to support parents returning to work, we also introduced a structured phased-return programme (after maternity leave or second parent leave) allowing employees, regardless of gender, to work four out of five days during their first month back. This flexible transition helps parents reintegrate into demanding roles while balancing new responsibilities, thereby reducing the pressure to resume to full capacity immediately. 

Finally, we offer parenthood seminars that accompany employees throughout the parental journey. Before maternity leave, a workshop is specifically designed for expectant mothers to help them prepare for this important transition. Upon returning to work, however, these workshops are open to both working parents (mothers and fathers) within the firm. These sessions focus primarily on sharing experiences and addressing practical topics such as managing a new organisation and routine both at home and at work, navigating changing priorities and coping with a heightened mental load that often comes with parenthood. 

Together these initiatives [1] aim to shift norms around caregiving by positioning parental support as a shared responsibility rather than a gender-specific issue, and by creating an environment where becoming a parent does not come at the cost of career progression.

My advice: if your goal is sustainable gender equity, design parental policies for both parents. When responsibilities are shared, women are better positioned to progress in their careers – and organisations benefit from stronger retention, engagement and long-term talent development. 

Sarah Taleb, HR Business Partner, Forvis Mazars in France

Learn, reflect and take action

Together, these initiatives show that progress on gender equity depends on intentional leadership, ongoing reflection and purposeful action. Our self-assessment tool is designed to support leaders in doing exactly that – by providing a structured framework to identify areas for improvement, assess opportunities and prioritise high-impact actions. We invite you to use it stimulate critical reflection, test assumptions and design policies and practices that drive measurable progress for your organisation.