age and gender: insights on breaking through two overlapping biases.

The theme of International Women's Day this year — #BreakTheBias — is a call to action for us all to imagine a more gender-equal world: one without biases, stereotypes or discrimination, where differences are both valued and celebrated. Getting there is the work of the present.

To do so, however, we'll first have to counteract two recent, and deeply troubling, talent trends: two large-scale exoduses, of women and older employees, from the U.S. workforce. While seemingly parallel developments, they're nonetheless connected by confluence biases, and only by correcting those can they be overcome.

For International Women's Day, let's look at those biases through the lens of women who might be returning to work after a significant amount of time away.

breaking biases: why women leave the workforce

It's hard to overstate the impact of the ongoing pandemic on the status — or for that matter, the presence — of women in the workforce. Between February 2020 and February 2021, for example, 2.4 million women exited the workforce. At this point, women’s participation in the labor force is close to the lowest rate on record since the 1980s. Meanwhile, no significant progress has been made on the gender gap in the U.S. for the past 15 years, and women continue to earn 84 percent of what men earn, on average. And the number of women of color in the C-suite — four percent — has barely budged in the past three years.

Given the magnitude of these challenges, it can be hard to know where to begin. Which is why it's worth thinking about how we're thinking about these challenges, too.

Take the results of this survey, for example, in which 6,500 business school alumni were asked to diagnose ongoing issues of inequality in career outcomes for men and women — to answer, basically, "What's holding women back?" According to 73 percent of the men and 85 percent of the women, the problem could be boiled down to an essential tradeoff, which you might call the "work-versus-family dilemma." Their thinking went like this: People in leadership roles are required to work very long hours. Because women are committed to their families, they can't put in those hours. Therefore, they experience different career outcomes. Case closed.

This is — obviously — an extremely simplistic narrative, and maybe worse than that, as it effectively blames women, or at least implicitly holds them accountable, for their own unequal career outcomes.

What's the real problem here? One answer should be fairly obvious: It's the division of labor. You probably won't be shocked to learn, for example, that fathers spend more time on leisure activities than mothers in general, particularly on their days off, while mothers are more focused on both childcare and household responsibilities. In a similar vein, one study of working parents with live-in partners found that 44 percent of the women were solely responsible for providing care and supervision to their children, compared to just 14 percent of the men.

Of course, like most deep-seated problems, this one feeds into others in turn.

Take burnout, for example. Both men and women have reported elevated rates of burnout since the onset of the pandemic, according to research, but the gender gap between the frequency of burnout has nearly doubled during that timeline: 42 percent of women and 35 percent of men reported being burned out in 2021, versus 32 percent and 28 percent, respectively, the year before.

The link between outcomes like these and disparities in childcare responsibilities discussed earlier is difficult to ignore.

A final interesting point, in connection with the phenomenon of women departing the workforce en masse, comes from sociologist Aliya Hamid Rao's 2020 book "Crunch Time," which documents the conspicuously different (read: gendered) ways in which couples think about and react to unemployment. Analyzing heterosexual couples, Rao found that unemployment in general wasn't treated as an urgent problem to address — that is, as long as it was the woman who was unemployed. And this proved true even in instances where the woman had been earning as much or more than the man.

What can be done to change this narrative and better support women who want to return to the workforce, especially if — here and elsewhere — some of the challenges they face are rooted in cultural norms? We'll get to that. First, let's look at how related issues around ageism are playing out right now.

at the intersection of two biases: gender inequality, meet ageism

You may have heard that Boomers and other older workers have been exiting the workforce in droves since the start of the global pandemic, and that narrative isn't wrong per se. Through the first two quarters of last year, for example, roughly 4.2 million people retired from the U.S. workforce, a figure that is about 2.4 million higher than you would see in a typical year.

But that isn't the complete story.

First of all, along that same timeline, there has only only been a marginal increase in the number of people filing Social Security claims. Second, workers over the age of 65 remain the fastest-growing segment of the workforce. And third, it's worth pointing out that one in five gig workers in the U.S. is over 50 years old today.

All of which suggests that a healthy appetite for work is alive and well among older workers. Some things have changed, of course, like the type of employment opportunities that are available, as the example of the gig workers illustrates. But those who aren't actively job hunting — and therefore count as having left the workforce — might also just be waiting for the right opportunity to come along, or perhaps for the timing to be right. Others might simply not know where to look.

What isn't speculative at the moment, unfortunately, is that many older workers believe they receive unfair treatment in the workplace due to their age. Indeed, nearly 80 percent of older workers in one AARP report said they had personally witnessed or been victims of age-based discrimination in the workplace. And yearly all of them — 96 percent — felt that stronger laws combatting such discrimination should be on the books, according to the same report.

Yet, despite how widespread these experiences of workplace discrimination appear to be, there's overwhelming evidence to suggest that older workers nonetheless want to return to work. For example, two-thirds of older workers in another AARP study said they'd like to receive job-related skills training, and a similar percentage reported having undertaken that training already.

But perhaps the most interesting finding from that study — and one that's closest to the spirit of International Women's Day — is that bringing back older employees into the workforce should help employers move the needle on diversity, too. Consider the following, for example:

• While older workers expressed interest in upskilling and reskilling across the board, that interest was highest among two groups, Blacks and Hispanics/Latinos.
• In terms of specific skill sets, Blacks and Hispanics/Latinos were also more interested in acquiring highly in-demand (and equally hard to find) computer and tech skills than their white counterparts.

Unfortunately, for the moment, far too many older workers continue to feel snubbed or cut off from employment opportunities. And oftentimes, as we have seen, they have good reasons for feeling that way. Add to that, say, the lingering fact of unequal professional advancement opportunities for men and women, and you begin to get a sense of why returning to the workforce can be a unique challenge for older women.

What can be done about it?

welcoming women back to the workforce: 3 strategies

1. reassess your approach to talent acquisition

Think of your talent acquisition function as the first, or most frontline, way for you to better support women who want to return to work. And that starts your outreach strategy — that is, where and how you're engaging with job seekers, as well as the messages that your job posts convey.

Hoping to connect with the most broadly inclusive candidates through job posts on social media, for example? You won't. In fact, one employment lawsuit has even alleged that the use of social media to target specific age groups for job ads amounts to a discriminatory hiring practice.

Rather, to connect with a more broadly inclusive candidate pool, including older women who wish to return to work, you'll likely need to rethink your end-to-end approach — and likely get a little bit creative, too. You might forgo social media altogether, for example, instead placing job ads in alumni magazines of relevant universities. And you should consider leveraging the deep pool of candidates and hiring expertise of a staffing partner, too, since that would almost certainly make it easier for you to drive the desired outcomes in this department.

Finally, from a messaging standpoint, there's no harm in being upfront about inclusivity. In job posts, for example, you might specifically call out age-inclusivity (as well as other kinds of diversity) as a key aspect or goal of your hiring process. It doesn't hurt to let everyone know they'll be welcome and encourage them to apply.

2. offer more robust returnships

Returnships should be seen as another key component of the solution for supporting women who are ready to return to the workforce.

Not familiar with the term? In a nutshell, returnships are programs specifically designed to help mid- and late-career workers — and women especially (some even stipulate a "caregiving break of at least two years," for example) — transition back to thriving careers after a hiatus. They usually run for a set duration of time, culminating (ideally) in a full-time job offer.

Most returnships include some sort of specialized mentorship, training, skill development and support as well, which makes sense. After all, like a lot of people who go on to become high-value contributors, these candidates simply need a bit of additional support during the entry stage.

Note that these programs can be run 100 percent remotely, too, so health or safety concerns shouldn't stand in your way.

3. reframe your diversity and inclusion strategy

“To help fast-track their recovery effort, we need to support working women with initiatives that encourage greater labor market participation while removing barriers impeding their professional ambitions and growth.” Rebecca Henderson, CEO, Randstad Global Businesses and Executive Board Member.

Along with gender, age should be specifically and explicitly included in the diversity and inclusion frameworks and strategies at a greater number of companies today. Doing that would help ensure that more diverse age representation, together with greater gender equality, is front and center for everyone involved in hiring and promotion decisions, from the highest level on down. It's an essential step if you hope to address the underlying (and very often unconscious) biases that can influence hiring outcomes and advancement opportunities equally.?

In practical terms, these types of organizational changes tend to be the most effective when they're amplified by tangible change: new offerings, educational initiatives and more, of which there are plenty of examples to borrow from. Some companies, for example, have already reported greater success hiring older candidates by offering age-specific incentives like wealth advisors, who are available at any time, and at no charge, to employees. Still others have introduced menopause education with the goal of educating their multigenerational workforces — and eliminating the stereotypes and stigmas sometimes associated with this period in life.

Far more important than the approach you take, above all, is the fact that you take actionable steps today.