From the desk of Hannah Owen, Workplace Consultant
Given that it is international women’s day on 8th March, it seems a good time to reflect on Women in the Workplace and the biggest challenges faced by them today. Ensuring gender equity at work has made slow progress and still has a long way to go. Gender inequality in the workplace takes many different forms. Perhaps the most cited and obvious is the gender pay gap. Just as visible is the unequal representation of women at the executive level but more subtly there are other discriminations such as microaggressions, exclusion and a lack of recognition for their work. Taking this into consideration, it is important to reflect on what your organisation has in place to support women in the workplace and what employers can do to foster an inclusive environment.
An intersectional and inter-generational lens at women’s experiences in the workplace
Women in the workplace have differentiated experiences, feelings and needs which are crucial to recognise to ensure that the appropriate measures are put in place to support them. Women often experience biases, but this may not just be because of their gender but part of compounding identities such as race, age, sexual orientation, or disabilities. This can result in them experiencing more microaggressions and can lead to barriers to advancement in the workplace.
Women at different stages of life have various needs that are often not accounted for in the typical office built from a male perspective. This can range from having a mother’s room to having different policies put in place to support women going through menopause. Having suitable childcare support in place or options for flexible working are especially in demand post-pandemic.
Promotion and advancement
The 2022 Women in Business study (Mckinsey&Company, 2022) done by McKinsey & Company found that for every 100 men who are promoted from entry-level roles to manager positions, only 87 women are promoted, and only 82 women of colour are promoted. Women are underrepresented in management roles, especially at the board level. It is not that they are less likely than men to aspire to have senior-level roles, but instead, they tend to experience microaggressions that undermine their authority or biases that work as a barrier to promotions. But with research showing that companies with three or more women on corporate boards financially outperformed companies with fewer, why are organisations not jumping at the chance to promote more? (Mckinsey&Company, 2022)
It is important that companies have robust policies in place during the recruitment and appraisal processes to ensure that all employees no matter of gender get an equal opportunity to advance. That may mean training senior members of staff who are responsible for managing and promoting their employees or putting in place training and development programmes that give equal opportunities for women employees to advance.
Women in leadership
There is some good news for women already in leadership roles. They are in more demand than ever in the scramble to get more women on boards as a result of the increased interest from investors in governance. This of course becomes a problem of retention of the few women at that level, so organisations need to look at what is important to them. Nowadays, company culture is a critical factor for women. Whether that be more flexibility or more well-being policies, it is something companies need to incorporate into their workplace to retain the best talent. Women are 1.5 times as likely as men at their level to have left a previous job because they wanted to work somewhere committed to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) (Mckinsey&Company, 2022).
EDI – underappreciated work?
Whether it is an expectation of women or they also genuinely tend to care more about it, women leaders do more to support DEI and employee well-being than men at the same level. This sort of work has many companies benefits that are often gone unrecognised and unrewarded. It improves company culture and increases staff retention and yet is often glossed over as unimportant work.
There needs to be a change in the way in which companies recognise and reward this work. Ensuring it is recognised will then lead to a better community culture and help retain female leaders.
Hybrid working
In this post-pandemic way of working, the notion of hybrid and flexible working is cited as especially important to women. The McKinsey& Company 2022 study found that only one in ten women want to work mostly on-site, and many cited having the option to work remotely or hybrid as one of their most important reasons for joining or staying at a company. Giving employees greater control over their working hours and where they work can make them feel more supported and give them a greater work-life balance.
Given the change in the way in which we are working, it is important to reflect on how this will affect women in the workplace and how companies can support them. Putting in the right policies and opportunities for them to feel comfortable and flourish is vital for staff retention and satisfaction. Moving forwards, it is vital that companies have women in leadership roles to allow their voices to be heard.
On this piece today, I want to finish with a song for the collective voice -that I will not lower my voice when it comes to advocating for the rights of women and girls to attain gender equity. And neither should you lower your voice when it comes to the discourse
Sing along