Gender Equity Policies and Employee Well-Being: Bridging the Gap Between Policy and Practice in Nigerian and Global Workplaces

Abstract

Despite the spread of gender equity policies across organisations worldwide, a frustrating and well-documented gap continues to exist between what these policies promise and what employees actually experience at work. This paper examines the relationship between gender equity policies and employee well-being, using a dual lens that compares global evidence with the specific realities of Nigerian workplaces. The study draws on Social Equity Theory, Organisational Justice Theory, and Berlo's Communication Model to argue that communication is not simply a tool for delivering policy to employees but is itself a determining factor in whether those policies improve well-being or remain symbolic documents that change nothing. Using a qualitative systematic review of peer-reviewed literature, international organisational reports, and media accounts from Nigerian contexts published between 2010 and 2024, the study finds that gender equity policies substantially improve employee morale, reduce psychological stress, and strengthen organisational commitment when they are implemented genuinely. However, persistent barriers including unconscious bias, what scholars call office housework, the routine assignment of menial tasks such as note-taking, serving refreshments, and post-event clean-up exclusively to female employees, weak enforcement mechanisms, and cultures that tolerate informal discrimination continue to undermine policy effectiveness. In the Nigerian context specifically, the intersection of cultural gender norms and the adoption of internationally borrowed policy frameworks creates a pattern of superficial compliance that leaves many women unprotected in practice. The paper concludes by recommending communication-centred, culturally responsive implementation strategies and contributes a reframing of gender equity policy as fundamentally a communication project requiring continuous and deliberate institutional effort.