Lenovo's Microsoft Word Plug-in Spell Checks Workplace Equality

When it comes to equality in the workplace, the MENA region lags far behind the rest of the world, losing an estimated USD 575 billion per year due to the social barriers that women face at work.

It’s an issue Lenovo is deeply committed to, so the brand worked with Wunderman Dubai to create an awareness campaign to highlight the issue as an initiative for International Women’s Day.

“After extensive research, we realised that in the workplace many words don't mean the same thing for women as they do for men. For example, ‘Seniority’ for a man means authority, but for 64% of women means to have their abilities questioned constantly.” explained the Wunderman team.

It was from that realisation that Wunderman conceived the Equality Spell Check, using Microsoft Word - a program people use every day at work - as a medium to deliver their message and teach about gender equality in the workplace in an innovative way.

The Wunderman team combined data and hard-hitting facts to develop a plug-in for MS Word which highlighted seemingly positive everyday workplace words as incorrect. When clicked on, the alternative definition of these words for women was revealed through hard-hitting facts about gender inequality in the workplace.

Supported with social content across multiple platforms, all communication led people to their website where they could learn valuable advice on how to drive gender equality in their workplace.

By modifying the most used program in the world, Lenovo sought to modify people’s behaviour and open the conversation about gender equality in the workplace. Now, many other companies in the region are joining this cause and installing Equality Spell Check in their offices.