Employers being urged to support equity on International Women’s Day

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on March 8, 2023.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Organon Canada, a global women’s health company, is inviting Canadian employers to embrace equity and adopt gender-specific initiatives to help women achieve equity in every aspect of life.

Organon Canada is shining a light on the importance of supporting women’s equity, while highlighting the cost of not investing in their health, by giving 170 employees across Canada paid time off and joinining 10,000 Organon employees worldwide in dedicating International Women’s Day toward investing in women’s health.

“We’re a company that’s focused on women’s health and we’re active in over 140 countries across the world. The initiative that we’re doing on international Women’s Day is to raise awareness around the issues in gender equity in health,” said Michael Casia, president and managing director at Organon Canada.

He said they are giving their employees time off so their female employees can really focus on themselves and take care of their health, and their male employees can take the time to focus on the health of the women in their lives.

“What we see in Canada, what we hear from our employees, as well as in other parts of the world, is that women are oftentimes in the family the primary caregiver and they put the other members of the family’s health ahead of their own, so really we’re looking to provide a day where we can really focus on them and also help to raise awareness around some of these inequities,” said Casia.

Organon partnered up with Alberta Women’s Health Foundation (AWHF) to conduct a survey which explores the impact of taboo topics and seeks to bring attention to gender-specific medical conditions affecting women’s lives, and their finding revealed crucial gaps.

For women with endometriosis, painful periods, pelvic floor issues, perimenopause and menopause, between 50 to 90 per cent of respondents reported significant impacts on their career and personal life.

They found that 39 per cent of women reported experiencing menopause and 17 per cent of women reported experiencing endometriosis, whose associated symptoms have shown to have considerable impacts on attaining education, work productivity, career choices and success, as well as social life and activities.

To learn more about Organon Canada’s International Women’s Day campaign, visit hereforherhealth.ca and for additional data from the Alberta Women’s Health Foundation survey, visit albertawomenshealthfoundation.org/our-impact.

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