Gender Equality - We haven't progressed as far as you think

Last year, IBM and Chief came out with an alarming study that showed while many professionals and organizations believe we have made progress in increasing women representation in leadership roles, the reality is that we've actually gotten worse.

First, some good news: We have increased representation at each end of the funnel-- with both junior professional level and C-Suite roles, we have seen slight increases in women professionals.

The bad news: All the levels in between went DOWN. We call it the "Messy Middle."

Download the study here: https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/en-us/report/women-leadership-2023

What does it mean?

• This is bad for business. Gender equality in the workforce is not just a woman's issue, it's a business problem. Study after study has shown that a more diverse and equitable workforce drives significantly better business results. And women-led companies(and countries) have shown they perform even stronger than those that are male-dominated.
• The IBV Study shows that those companies who have acted first in addressing this gap are already seeing the benefits as shown here.

• However, these first movers have only increased women representation by 2%. Imagine their results if they accelerate their efforts.
• Unfortunately, the gap in middle management across all companies is alarming because if it is not addressed, we will never achieve gender equality in the workplace. Ever. Nor will we achieve the business results that come along with it.

What should we do?

For ideas and guidance on how your organization can start to address the gap, I highly recommend reading the Study above. But today, I also wanted to share my thoughts on where we should focus our efforts first...

1. Data, Data, and more Data: The IBV study is a starting point, but it brings up a lot of unanswered questions like...

• Why are women leaving the workforce at the prime of their careers?
• Is it for caretaking activities?
• Do they not have the same ambitions as men? (I have a hard time believing that)
• Or are they not getting enough opportunities to reach their full potential?

To really understand the problem we are trying to address, we need to know the root cause and also the specific data for our own organizations before we can put programs and systems in place to address it and measure true progress.

2. Allyship & Education

As evident in some recent discussions I've had with male and female professionals alike, people still do not think gender equality is an issue. They question actual validated data that has been provided and are unaware of unconscious biases they possess about women in the workplace.

If you don't know better, you can't do better. That means we have a lot of work to do in educating the world on ways to fight bias in the workplace and ensure equitable opportunities for women.

Women cannot solve this problem alone, so Allyship will play a huge role in getting everyone in the same boat, rowing in the same direction.

3. Accountability & Opportunity

If you've read Andrew McAfee's book "The Geek Way," you know he talks a lot about humans being "ultrasocialis" and following cultural norms. It is important that whatever solutions we put in place, we must focus them at a group level, and not just on individuals.

His example is that we cannot have an individual take an Ethics training and expect them to behave ethically. Instead, we must create a culture where the norm is to behave in an ethical way, which will better influence the individual than a one-hour mandatory training.

I believe we must approach gender equality in the same way - how do we create a culture that fights biases in the workplace and limits plausible deniability by holding people accountable for driving equality progress within their teams.

It has been said that men are often promoted based on their potential and women for their results. What would happen if our culture AND individuals made it a priority to give the same opportunities for women to reach their potential as they do for men?

In Closing

If there is anything you've gotten from this much-too-brief explanation of the current state of women in the workplace, I hope it's that you now know we have much work to do.

The question here isn't, "Are you willing to become an educated and supportive Ally?" The question is, "Can you and your business really afford not to?"