Just A Day? 10 Ways To Shape The Post-COVID Future With International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day on March 8 kicks off efforts building towards fairness, parity, equality and inclusion.
Justice, dignity and hope are what the colors purple, green and white aim to signify as the theme colors of International Women’s Day, March 8 in its 110th year of gatherings around the globe. With the theme of #ChooseToChallenge, what faces women in a post-COVID culture and economy is aptly challenging.
“With the theme of #ChooseToChallenge, International Women’s Day on March 8 kicks off efforts building towards fairness, #parity, equality and inclusion. #IWD #2021”
As Take The Lead’s mission is to assist in achieving gender parity in leadership across all disciplines for all those who identify as women by 2025, the challenge is distinctly aligned with IWD. The mission of IWD is to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, raise awareness about equality and work to accelerate gender parity.
While IWD is an official holiday during Women’s History Month in nearly 30 countries from Afghanistan to Zambia, and including Russia and China, it is not an official holiday in the U.S. So it is up to individuals and leaders in organizations to magnify the voices and successes of women and to move toward inclusive gender equity during an especially difficult economic and cultural climate.
In a new McKinsey & Co. report, Women in The Workplace 2020, released in conjunction with IWD, results show that 54% of senior level women say in this work climate, they are exhausted, compared to 41% of senior-level men. Nearly 40% of women at this level say they are burned out and 36% of women say they are pressured to work more.
The economic effects from COVID have measurably deeper and more profound detrimental effects on women of color. In 2020, 19% of white women had made it to the C-Suite, compared to 3% women of color, 66% white men and 12% men of color.
“A new @McKinsey report, Women in The Workplace 2020, released in conjunction with #IWD, shows that the economic effects from #COVID have had measurably deeper and more profound detrimental effects on women of color. #womenintheworkplace”
Nearly half or 47% of Black women and Asian women say they feel stressed, while 49% of Latinas report feeling stressed. Nearly a quarter, or 23% of Black women say they feel in the dark about issues at work, while 22% of white women say the same.
Read more in Take The Lead on IWD 2018
Black women are almost twice as likely as women overall to say that they can’t bring their whole selves to work and more than 1.5 times as likely to say they don’t have strong allies, according to the McKinsey study.
“Black women are almost twice as likely as women overall to say that they can’t bring their whole selves to work and more than 1.5 times as likely to say they don’t have strong allies, according to the @McKinsey study. #womenintheworkplace #IWD”
“As a result of these dynamics, 1 in 4 women are contemplating what many would have considered unthinkable less than a year ago: downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce. This is a critical moment for corporate America. Companies risk losing women in leadership—and future women leaders—and unwinding years of painstaking progress toward gender diversity,” the McKinsey report states.
Read more in Take The Lead on IWD 2019
With the goal of improving the workplace culture for women beyond IWD, the organization suggests these 10 criterion for employers who intend to be considered “Prime Employers.”
1. Demonstrate executive leadership commitment to gender equality. This would need to move beyond lip service and mission statements, and major corporations are backing these global initiatives. For instance, Procter & Gamble recently announced efforts “aimed to propel gender equality across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, at its third annual #WeSeeEqual summit for the region (where discussions) addressed the challenges of gender and women's equality, which have been severely impacted by the pandemic,” according to PR Newswire. With a commitment of $200 million, P & G promises to educate more than 30 million adolescent girls on puberty and hygiene across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, through its Always and Whisper 'Keeping Girls in School' program over the next three years.
“To improve the #workplaceculture for women beyond #IWD, a new report by @McKinsey stresses the importance of executive leadership demonstrating commitment to #genderequality. This would need to move beyond lip service and mission statements. ”
Read more in Take The Lead on fair pay
2. Embrace a culture of diversity and inclusion. Beyond hiring “only’s” and creating “visuals” that demonstrate DEI, leaders and organizations are backing the efforts to create a richly diverse and inclusive workplace. Potential employees are looking for genuine efforts and refusing to join companies that are not sincere in DEI moves. “Millennials and Generation Z job seekers are setting a higher bar; they want employers to be equally committed to changing themselves. This includes hiring a more diverse workforce, helping employees of color advance through the ranks, giving them more decision-making power and facilitating uncomfortable conversations about systemic racism. Mission statements about racial justice and prompt responses to current events are also important, but they must be more than set pieces. Young job seekers say they’re attuned to anything that smacks of performance, “ according to the Washington Post.
Stay tuned for details on Take The Lead’s DEI Summit April 15
3. Forge a female hiring pipeline from early career to executive level. Leaders need to look beyond the “usual” entry points and also make sure they are not dismissing talented prospects for simple reasons. A new study from Talenya of 10 million candidates, Exploring The Recruitment Pipeline Fallacy, shows a simple discrepancy in applying for jobs to begin filling the pipeline starts with a resume. “We are at a place in our society where people – especially women and minorities – are missing life-changing opportunities simply because a keyword is missing from their profile,” said Gal Almog, Co-Founder and CEO of Talenya. “This skill discrepancy is not necessarily a fair representation of talent capabilities,” reports BusinessWire.
“Forge a female hiring pipeline from early career to executive level. Leaders need to look beyond the “usual” entry points and also make sure they are not dismissing talented prospects for simple reasons. #genderequality #IWD #workplace”
Read more here in Take The Lead on individual courses, programs, trainings, workshops
4. Value and support flexible working arrangements. Among the myriad lessons from COVID-19 about creating a feasible workplace for the pandemic and for the future is that flexibility is critical. As McKinsey reports, childcare, home schooling, elder care, home care are all daily realities for millions of women working from home. To address these disparities, employees need to be proactive and vigilant about flexible work schedules. “Because of the heavier demands that mothers are shouldering at home, it’s especially difficult for them to balance work and life during COVID-19. Mothers are more likely than fathers to feel exhausted and to say that childcare and homeschooling are among their biggest challenges during the pandemic. Mothers also face persistent bias in the workplace. And when mothers take advantage of flexible work options, that perception is strengthened, even if they are just as productive as other employees. Now that family demands are front and center—and sometimes literally visible to co-workers over videoconferencing—this bias may be intensified,” according to the new McKinsey & Co. Women in The Workplace study.
“Value and support flexible working arrangements. Among the myriad lessons from #COVID19 about creating a feasible #workplace for the pandemic and for the future is that flexibility is critical. #workfromhome #genderequity”
5. Provide formal avenues to address any concerns of bias. “As companies made their initial investments in DEI, a handful of solutions — employee resource groups, Chief Diversity Officers, and anti-bias training — emerged as especially popular. Each of these options can have a positive impact in the right circumstances when executed effectively, but their pitfalls are well-documented,” according to Benefits Pro. “Company leaders leverage external experts to define and address issues of power, privilege, and bias, helping employees to identify ways to create more affirming environments. Yet, these trainings come with their own challenges and mixed results for efficacy. Research has shown that diversity and anti-bias trainings reduce bias at a negligible rate or can even activate biases in the workplace,” Benefits Pro reports. So understand that a program doesn’t solve the problem alone.
6. Ensure women's inclusion from supply-chain through to decision making. “Like the worlds of technology and finance, the supply chain industry has a well-deserved reputation for being somewhat of a ‘boy’s club,’ similar to the likes of the oil and gas industry. In 2019, women accounted for just 39% of the supply-chain workforce, despite representing more than 50% of the professional workforce in developed markets. Leadership positions were largely concentrated in the hands of men, who occupied 89% of all top roles. This figure represents a drop from 2017, when women held 15% of CSCO, EVP, SVP and CPO positions,” according to Supply Chain Brain. “Gender diversity is just one piece of a multifaceted puzzle that supply-chain firms must solve. It cuts along several strata, including race, sexuality, ability, skillset, experience, and age, each with its own challenges and foibles. The one unifying factor is the urgency in which they must be solved.”
7. Ensure marketing and communications are consistently free from stereotyping. UN Women recently discovered this tendency and was “forced to remove a Valentine's Day illustration from social media, showing a black woman hugging herself alongside loved up couples, after Twitter users accused the organization of perpetuating racial stereotypes,” The Daily Mail reports. “The organization with offices across the globe, posted the graphic on Twitter to celebrate diversity in love on Valentine's Day, showing a black woman alongside interracial gay, lesbian and straight couples. Social media users made copies of the image before it was deleted following the backlash, with many arguing against the decision to show couples of varying races expressing love with the exception of the black woman.”
8. Provide external support for women's advancement. McKinsey reports, “If companies recognize the scale of these problems and do all they can to address them, they can help their employees get through this difficult time and even reinvent the way they work so it’s more flexible and sustainable for everyone. If not, the consequences could badly hurt women, business, and the economy as a whole. This moment requires long-term thinking, creativity, strong leadership, and a laser focus on the value of women to their organizations.”
“In their new report #WomenInTheWorkplace 2020, @McKinsey finds that companies must provide external support for women’s advancement, especially now: “This moment requires long-term thinking, creativity, strong leadership, and a laser focus on the value of women to their organizations.” #CarpeTheChaos”
Learn more here about Take The Lead’s programs
9. Monitor progress and outcomes from equality initiatives and activity. Programs and initiatives are futile if they do not produce outcomes. Post the good, the bad and the improving. According to the McKinsey & Co. report on Women in The Workplace, “Despite gains for women in leadership, a ‘broken rung’ in promotions at the first step up to manager was still a major barrier in the past year. For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 85 women were promoted—and this gap was even larger for some women: Only 58 Black women and 71 Latinas were promoted. As a result, women remained significantly outnumbered at the manager level at the beginning of 2020—they held just 38 percent of manager positions, while men held 62 percent.”
“Monitor progress and outcomes from equality initiatives and activity. Programs and initiatives are futile if they do not produce outcomes. Post the good, the bad and the improving. #InternationalWomensDay #DEI #leadership ”
10. Maintain external validation of progressive employer practice. According to The Drum, Hub Spot reports, “We firmly believe that we can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality and that, collectively, we can all help create a more inclusive society. Simply put, we can’t lose our grip on gender equality. We can’t overlook the qualities women bring to the workplace that help businesses succeed and we can’t blame a pandemic for regression in workplace gender equality. In fact, businesses that do not empower women will be more likely to fail.”
