Women face uphill hiring battle even mid-pandemic

This is Working Together, a weekly series on the changing face of U.S. business. Join me live at 12ET here to speak with Incredible Health Founder Iman Abuzeid and Carrot Fertility Tammy Sun on how the pandemic will impact healthcare longterm. Have ideas about what we should discuss next week? Let me know in the comments using #WorkingTogether or email me at [email protected]. 

The pandemic has exacted an enormous economic toll, on companies and employees alike. And women are bearing the brunt of this professional pain, both in terms of the employment opportunities and their prospects for career advancement, according to LinkedIn data. 

Even worse, there are few, if any, signs women’s burdens will be lightened, at least until schools reopen or employers adopt more flexible workplaces policies.

Female hiring reached a low globally in April, with women only accounting for 40.6% of new hires. Hiring of women rebounded slightly in June and July to around 44.5%, as pandemic-related restrictions gradually lifted. While the recovery is encouraging, it’s important to remember that women started from a lower hiring baseline in most countries. That means they’ll need to make up for the hiring losses in March and April before things can return to pre-pandemic conditions.

Women are taking on an outsize portion of both childcare and household responsibilities through the pandemic. In the UK, 27% of female parents said they were caring for their children by themselves and 32% said they were providing full-time childcare. Just 19% of men said the same. In the United States, 60% of working mothers in a recent survey told LinkedIn that their employer was making no accommodations to their schedule to help with childcare responsibilities. 

The additional responsibilities and inflexible management policies will have a long-term impact on women’s careers. In a recent survey, Working Mother magazine found that dads are three times as likely as moms to receive a promotion during the pandemic. The shortage of women moving up the corporate ladder during this crisis is poised to exacerbate the gender pay gap, and it will turn the clock back on progress different industries have made in elevating more women into leadership roles. 

Employers can reverse this trend. To do that, they will need to embrace flexible workplace policies. In March, a 35-year-old mother who I’ll call Janet was struggling so much with her job hunt in the U.S. that she considered dropping out of the workforce entirely. She was pregnant when she started her search and she was concerned that she wouldn’t be able to find a job that would accommodate her upcoming pregnancy. She ended up getting hired in July at a prominent social media company, where she was offered six months of maternity leave. But she still hid her pregnancy through the entire recruiting process. 

“I still think unconscious bias exists, but I knew coming in that the policies were progressive and supportive,” she said. 

Janet’s story shows that even the most progressive companies have a long way to go for women to truly feel like their needs matter. If employers don’t take steps that empower all employees to bring their full selves to work, we risk losing many women from the workforce. 

What’s Working 

A first on Wall Street. Jane Fraser will become the first woman to lead a big U.S. bank when she takes the reins from Citigroup CEO Mike Corbat in February. Check out my sit down with her earlier on in the pandemic above. 

Getting rid of bias. Much of what we say at work may be well-intentioned, but it may still be offensive. Software startup Textio is trying to change that with AI tools that alert managers and recruiters of this type of language in job postings. A good example of this is using the word “tribe” to describe a team, which could be deemed offensive by many African and indigenous communities. [LinkedIn]

Making startups inclusive. Only 1% of VC funding goes to Black founders and 2% to Latinx founders. Candice Morgan — formerly of Pinterest and now a diversity and inclusion partner at GV — walks through why making diversity efforts core to the VC industry, not an add on, is essential to change this problem. [Fast Company]

Demand for Chief Diversity Officers. In the 45 days after the killing of George Floyd, postings for CDOs spiked by nearly 100% on LinkedIn, compared to the 45 days prior. But while many companies may feel pressure to hire a Chief Diversity Officer, the position isn’t valuable if these roles don’t report directly to the CEO and have budgets big enough to create real change [HBR]

Who’s Pushing Us Forward 

Selling yourself mid-pandemic. Very few people are feeling confident — in themselves or their careers — right now. That’s why I wanted to sit down with Precious Williams, a 13-time national elevator pitch champion and the embodiment of confidence. Get her take on how to take your career to the next level in the video above. 

What topics do you want to discuss next time? Let me know in the comments below using #WorkingTogether