Advocacy for inclusive writing in business

A text by Jonathan Nicolas, founder and digital strategist, Glo.

MAIL FROM READERS. March 8 is International Women’s Day. It is not the official day for buying flowers for one’s partner or for making a courtesy call to one’s mother or daughter. And above all, it is not the international day of performative thanks on social networks, so that the marketing department of each company publicly salutes the existence of women within their ranks.

Besides, it’s a safe bet that many of them would prefer to exchange this annual Facebook publication for a fairer salary. Since although this day is dedicated to women’s rights, it seems that organizations here still flout the right of women to be paid fairly.

The numbers speak for themselves. In 2021, Quebec women earned an average of 91% of the hourly wages of their male colleagues, according to data from the Institut de la statistique du Québec. This is also 1% less than the previous year. And whatever the Minister responsible for the Status of Women thinks, who recently refused to recognize intersectional feminism, the pay gap is even greater for racialized women. Even with a similar degree and a comparable number of years of experience, Statistics Canada data shows that they are paid 16% less than non-racialized and non-Indigenous men. Anyway, maybe we should put away the cameras and put down the bouquets of flowers, since there’s still a long way to go!

Instead of celebrating, this period should be the perfect opportunity to question ourselves and take concrete and lasting actions within each company. The possibilities for improvement are certainly not lacking! The analysis of wages according to gender, the revision of internal policies, inclusion in decision-making positions and menstrual leave are just a few requests frequently made by those concerned. Besides, I’m obviously not the right person to draw up any kind of action plan here. Although I try to use my privilege to amplify their voice, it is these women within each company who should perhaps be listened to more (without cutting them off), in order to better understand their experience, to recognize their validity and improve their conditions.

Become visible through inclusive writing

As an advertiser, however, allow me to point out a track that particularly resonates with my profession. In fact, I believe that a trivial analogy will suffice to put you in tune as well. Have you ever been in a group chat where no one is talking to you? The topic was interesting, the ideas relevant and the discussions lively, but for some reason everyone seemed to ignore your presence. As if you were invisible. It’s infuriating, isn’t it? And yet, this is what the majority of Quebec companies do every day through their communication and human resources departments.

These companies invest a lot of time and money trying to retain their customers, improve the web experience of users, congratulate their employees and recruit experts, but they do not even speak to 50% of the population. Do you see what I mean? And if I said instead that these companies are trying to retain their customers, improve the web experience of users, congratulate their employees and recruit experts, would that be more obvious?

At a time when staff shortages are at their peak and inflation is holding back sales, communicating as if women were invisible seems to me a very ill-advised choice. It would therefore be obvious that the adoption of inclusive writing has a place among the list of concrete actions to be taken by companies. With its principles and processes promoting respect for diversity, the approach makes it possible to offer equal representation of genders. It is neither more expensive nor complex to build customer loyalty, improve the web experience of Internet users, congratulate teams and recruit specialists.

Last October, the Government of Canada released guidelines and resources on inclusive writing in French. With this official stamp of approval, there simply seems to be no valid reason to continue to discriminate, and to stubbornly follow the linguistic rules dictated by a boys club from another era.

As an advertiser, my wish is that this International Women’s Day could have been something more than another fleeting social media storm. I hope that it will be able to change the practices of my profession.