Three Ways to Support Women in Business Everyday

Support the people and systems that support women.?

Not everything that affects women’s ability to be effective in the workplace is at work. Most of it is at home. This is one of the reasons women disproportionately dropped out of the workforce during the pandemic. One of the most important ways we can support and encourage women to stay in the workforce is by encouraging those that can support them to do so. We do this through encouraging family leave policies that include men, ensuring that men can address kid concerns (sick kids, kids school activities, etc) without stigma, and ensuring that male leaders can be upfront with their employees about responsibilities at home and do not penalize male employees for doing their part - even when it means taking time away from work. In doing so, we create space for entire families to thrive by normalizing men’s contributions to homelife that allow the women in their lives more space to pursue their careers too. ?

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Similarly, create pathways for all employees to seek mental health assistance and normalize men and women discussing mental health challenges. ?

This is the same issue, with a different flavor. Helping women and men address mental health challenges lessens the stress on everyone. Mental health needs to be a normal part of our conversations with employees, both in groups and one-on-one sessions to ensure that they understand that resources are available to them, but also, that most people experience mental health crises at some point in their lives. Male leaders, especially, need to step boldly into this space. On balance, men are less likely to seek out mental health solutions, which often then leads to stress at home that falls disproportionately on their partner. This can manifest in additional tension at home, as well as more serious problems like domestic violence, that keep partners out of the workforce and from being able to pursue their own professional dreams. Experts will tell you, men are suffering from a silent mental health crisis. We cannot fix mental health or social crises without focusing on women and men in equal measure. Women hold up half of the sky – but people hold up the whole sky and when one part is suffering, the whole thing collapses.?

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Seek out women-owned enterprises, especially in industries where they are under-represented.?

Large, male-owned enterprises dominate the security and risk management sector (the sector I'm most familiar with - but this is also true in construction, defense, finance and myriad other traditionally male-dominated spaces). Many of these well-respected and well-known companies add enormous value to the sector. But there is also a growing cadre of female-owned and operated businesses breaking into the sector. They need the support of their professional peers to thrive and compete against the big budgets of their large corporate counterparts. This doesn’t diminish the value of those bigger businesses; it creates more consumer choice and more competitive offerings for everyone in the field. Far more than any nicely branded LinkedIn post on International Women’s Day, seeking out and evaluating these businesses for fit with your company's needs is the biggest compliment you could pay them. They don’t need a handicap to compete – they need intentionality to be heard through the noise and the marketing campaigns from the bigger companies. They’ll stand on their own when held up to competitors and will likely provide more personalized and tailored service than you’ll get from a larger company too!?

Meredith Wilson is the CEO and Founder of?Emergent Risk International, a risk intelligence and advisory consultancy.