By underutilising their employees' skills and exposing a share of their workforce to demoralisation and stressful harassment, discriminatory workplaces undermine their potential efficiency and productivity. Furthermore, discriminatory organizations may be exposed to costly lawsuits in an increasing number of countries. Gender-conscious enterprises may also be better able to respond to changing markets, as shown by the recent example of sports equipment manufacturers' development of products adapted to women's anatomy. Management of public and private sector workplaces have a crucial role in improving fairness of treatment by actively implementing comprehensive equal opportunities measures in their organizations. Over two decades of experience in several countries have shown a number of practices to be effective in correcting and preventing discrimination in the workplace.
Available evidence suggests fair treatment policies have been associated with better performance.
In all cases, making management accountable for the implementation of these policies has been found especially important to their success.