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Gender Equity for Working Women Needs Work

Gender Equity for Working Women Needs Work

Gender equity for working women needs work. The 7th annual McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2021 lays out in stark terms the many ways gender equity for working women needs work in Corporate America. Women leaders have taken on more responsibility assuming strong leadership roles, particularly in advancing measures to ensure worker wellbeing. Yet more than a year and a half into the pandemic, “women are now significantly more burned out—and increasingly more so than men.” The 7th annual McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2021 lays out in stark terms what women face more in Corporate America.

This study, conducted in partnership with LeanIn.Org, tracks the progress of women in corporate America. The data this year reflects contributions from 423 participating organizations employing 12 million people and more than 65,000 people surveyed on their workplace experiences. In-depth interviews were also conducted with women of diverse identities, including women of color, LGBTQ+ women, and women with disabilities.

“The pandemic continues to take a toll on employees, and especially women. Women are even more burned out than they were a year ago, and burnout is escalating much faster among women than men. One in three women says they have considered downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce this year, compared to 1 in 4 who said this a few months into the pandemic.4 Additionally, 4 in 10 women have considered leaving their company or switching jobs—and high employee turnover in recent months suggests that many of them are following through”

Women in the Workplace 2021: The State of Women — McKiinsey and LeanIn.Org

Despite the toll that the pandemic is taking, women have made advances and are making gains, particularly in leadership positions. They are doing more work than men at the same level. And it turns out that they’re better than the men at being an ally, supporting their teams as they work to level the playing field. They are leaders who support diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. They are also more likely than men to practice allyship. They actively “support their teams, from helping employees manage their workloads to checking in regularly on their overall well-being.” However, those contributions are going “unrecognized and unrewarded” by most companies.

Women of Color Still Face the Same Discrimination

Women of color continue to face significant discrimination at work. They are experiencing the same types of microaggressions at the same rate as they were 2 years ago. Corporate America appears not to have learned the lessons of the #BlackLiveMatter movement.

“While all women are more likely than men to face microaggressions that undermine them professionally— such as being interrupted or having their judgment questioned—many women of color experience them at a higher rate.”

Women in the Workplace 2021 — MicKinsey & Company

Given the friction and microaggressions that women of color face in the workplace, they are less optimistic than white women about the company’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Disruption Brings Opportunity

Companies, of course, can address the issues to make the State of Work more tolerable for women. In fact, the Women in the Workplace 2021 report by McKinsey report presents a punch-list of actions employers could take to address the challenges women face at work. We encourage our readers to download the 62-page report simply by clicking the download button. Please tackle what you can and share the report with colleagues.

The report concludes,

“The immediate challenge for companies is to help employees get through the pandemic—and the work to get this right is far from over. But companies also need to start to plan for the future . . . Now they need to treat women’s equality and diversity, equity and inclusion with the same sense of urgency—and they need to reward the leaders taking us into the future.”

Women in the Workplace 2021 – McKinsey and LeanIn.Org

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Krista Bradford

Krista Bradford

Krista Bradford is CEO of the retained executive search firm The Good Search and of its research division Intellerati. A former award-winning television journalist and investigative reporter, Ms. Bradford now pursues truth, justice, and great talent in the executive suite.View Author posts

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