Women's History Month is a Time for Personal Reflection

International Women's Day (IWD) takes place on March 8th every year. In years past the day has been uplifting and one of celebration. Of course, I celebrate the many accomplishments and unlimited potential of women around the world every day. But, this year I definitely found myself reflecting on how far we have come and how much further we have yet to go.

IWD as an event is not a recent concept. It began as National Women’s Day in the United States in February of 1909. The following year, at the second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, Denmark, women’s rights activist Clara Zetkin called for an international women’s day to give women a greater voice to further their demands for equal rights. It was unanimously approved by women participating from 17 countries. International Women’s Day was marked for the first time in March 1911 – and the date was fixed as 8 March in 1913. The UN celebrated it for the first time in 1975 and in 1996 it announced its first annual theme: "Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future".

The day marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality, embedding equity in this conversation. For me personally, this is typically a day for taking stock of gender equality, recognizing progress and the journey ahead, and bringing colleagues and co-workers along on that journey.

Progress is Happening

There is no question that progress has occurred. I have personally witnessed the progress in the workplace, in boardrooms and government positions around the world. For example, for the first time, women CEOs run more than 10% of the Fortune 500 companies. Three are women of color.?

I have to admit, though, that despite the gains, I expected that progress would be much further along than we actually are. I think of the time I spent talking about the progress with my Mom and my daughter and I worry about what my granddaughter will face in the future. I spent the majority of my career in tech and a glance at current statistics shows there is plenty of work yet to be done.

Still Much Work to be Done

Women currently hold only 26.7% of tech-related jobs, and similarly, technology firms with more than 10,000 employees report women’s representation at 26.2%. We’re creating the solutions of tomorrow without truly embracing the needs of those who will be using the technologies.

Women are getting technology jobs but more than half of women leave the industry by the mid-point of their career, which is more than double the rate of men. The default assumption is that this is because of caring responsibilities, however the main reasons women currently leave tech include poor management support (23%), lack of opportunity (20%), and lack of work-life balance (22%).

These statistics are even more painful because we have seen tech sector companies pull back on diversity programs in recent months citing economic realities as an excuse.

Diversity and Inclusion is a Bottom Line Issue?

From a business perspective, this reversal in DEI focus simply doesn't make sense. Embracing diversity and fostering inclusion strengthens decision making, enabling companies to challenge themselves before competitors do by bolstering agility and resilience. Multiple studies link inclusive workplaces to positive bottom line results:

• When employees “think their organization is committed to and supportive of diversity, and they feel included”, innovation revenue increases by 83%, Deloitte.
• Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15% more likely to outperform competitors. Those in the top quartile for ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to outperform competitors, McKinsey.
• An inclusive organization is 2x as likely to exceed financial targets, 3x as likely to be high-performing, 6x more likely to be agile and innovative, and 8x more likely to achieve better business outcomes, Deloitte.

Despite the facts that correlate tangible positive business outcomes to diversity and inclusion, the harsh reality is that our work has just begun. The following sobering stats are just a few that substantiate today’s bleak reality.

• During December 2021, the US economy lost 140,000 jobs - ALL of these jobs were held by Black and Latina women, white women gained jobs.
• The proportion of funding raised by women-only teams has dropped from 3% to 1% since 2018.
• According to the National Centre for Women & Information Technology, of the 25% of women working in tech, Black women account for only 3%.

What You Can Do

Celebrate women’s accomplishments all year - IWD is a great moment in the calendar to take stock and celebrate, but it is a moment. Ensure your focus is continuous.?

Review your pay gap - If a gender pay gap exists, dig under the hood to understand what is causing this (imbalance in hiring offers, lack of access to opportunity to growth projects and so on), and rectify it.

Check your promotion criteria and invest in power skills - Are you promoting technical brilliance only while discounting the importance of modern inclusive leadership skills? Implementing HEARTI is a great way to bring inclusive power skills to your organization. Ensure that your criteria doesn’t only work for those who are similar to the leadership that already exists (which, in most companies, are men).

Invest in allyship programs – Companies are beginning to recognize that with the majority of positions of power being held by men, they will not achieve diversity goals without enlisting men to be part of the journey. PrismWork’s recent research found that men want this support and guidance. Our programs provide men with a clear understanding of what it means to be an ally and all leave with a tangible action plan.

Join Our Celebration

We are so excited to let you know that PrismWork has been chosen as a finalist for the 2023 SXSW Innovation Awards.? Finalists are distributed amongst 14 different categories that range from AI to "Health and MedTech" to Sustainability and were chosen by a jury of industry judges from the hundreds of entries received by SXSW in the fall of 2022. Our specific submission was for the HEARTI:Leader Quotient power skills assessment which powers modern leaders.

While we did not win the award, we are incredibly honored by this recognition and would like to celebrate with you by offering specially-discounted access to the HEARTI:Leader Quotient for a limited time only.

Daina is the Chief Strategy Officer at PrismWork. She has nearly a decade of experience as an operator, director and advisor for public, private, PE and VC-backed companies. Her unique background of operational leadership and executive coaching experience guides her advisory skills helping companies to build and manage global teams, establish new categories, optimize marketing, nurture company cultures, and deliver results across small, medium and large organizations.