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Gender Parity
in the Workplace

Diverse group of professionals working on a whiteboard

Challenges for women in the workplace.

Women are hired and promoted at lower rates than men, and are frequently paid less for equal work. Two thirds of women have experienced microaggressions in the workplace, such as:
 
  • Having their judgment questioned in their areas of expertise
  • Needing to provide more evidence of their competence than others do
  • Being addressed in a less-than-professional way
  • Being mistaken for someone at a much lower level than they  are
  • Having their work contributions ignored
  • Hearing demeaning remarks about themselves or other women
Source: 2018 LeanIn.org and McKinsey Women in the Workplace Study

Covid has caused women to lose even more ground.

As of February 2021, 2.5 million women had left the workforce since the beginning of the pandemic–compared to 1.8 million men. One in four women who had become unemployed during that time said it was due to lack of childcare, compared to just one in eight men. And by February 2022, men had reportedly recouped all of their pandemic-related job losses, while women still had one million fewer jobs than in February 2020.
Source:
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Jobs Report, February 2021
Brookings "Why has COVID-19 Been Especially Harmful for Working Women?”, October 2020
National Women's Law Center, “Men Have Now Recouped Their Pandemic-Related Labor Force Losses While Women Lag Behind”, February 2022
Woman working from home

Here are the stats

Woman icon

Just one in five C-suite positions is occupied by a woman–and just one in 25 by a woman of color.  

McKinsey, Women in the Workplace, 2021

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Women are hired and promoted at lower rates than men, which means that far fewer women make it into management and have a chance at senior roles.

McKinsey, Women in the Workplace, 2021

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When women are better represented in leadership roles, they hire more women throughout the company–ensuring a sufficient pipeline of female talent for future leadership roles.

World Economic Forum, The Global Gender Gap Report, 2020

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Female executives are correlated with higher profits. Companies with 30% female leadership enjoy a 15% boost in profitability compared to similar companies with no female leadership.

Peterson Institute, Is Gender Diversity Profitable, 2016

Here are the stats

Woman icon
Only 1 out of 5 senior leaders is a woman, and only 1 out of 25 is a woman of color.
55% of CEOs and other C-suite execs believe women in their organization have been passed over for a promotion because of gender.
Women who do make it to the executive level are more likely to be in HR, legal, and marketing functions – and less likely to be in operations or technology.
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Since the beginning of the pandemic, women have lost 2.5 million jobs–one million more jobs than men.

2/3 of women have experienced microaggressions in the workplace.
Even with equal levels of education and experience, women healthcare executives earn 20% less than men.

“At the current rates, it will take 151 years to close the Economic Participation and Opportunity gender gap."

The World Economic Forum, 2022

Black female leading a presentation

Diversity in leadership pays off.

Businesses with 30% women in leadership are 15% more profitable than companies with no women in leadership. And having three or more women on the Board of Directors is correlated with better financial performance, +10% Return on Equity (ROE). Conversely, companies with no female directors experience -1% ROE.
Source: MSCI Women on Board Progress Report, 2017

How do companies close the gender gap?

Make a public commitment to close the gender gap at the top of your company. 

Have a recruitment strategy to create diverse, representative candidate slates.

Update benefits and policies to reflect the reality for women working and caring for their family in the same space.

Combat acts of conscious and unconscious bias in the workplace. Employers can’t control what employees think, but they can control what is acceptable workplace behavior.

Measure and report on gender parity. If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.

Black woman and asian woman laughing together at work