Women in Leadership: Unequal Access on the Journey to the Top
Written by Daniella Kahane, WIN Executive Director & CEO
We’ve all heard the data before – that when more women ascend to leadership roles, organizations benefit. Companies with a greater number of women in leadership positions are more likely to have improved business performance, higher levels of creativity, innovation, and productivity, as well as greater commitment to diversity. And yet, women are still severely underrepresented in leadership positions.
Today, women account for only 8% of Fortune 500 company CEOs, and 30% of S&P 500 Directors. Apparently there are more CEOs of large corporations in the US named John or David than there are female CEOs.
We know the ascent up the ladder can be grueling, if not impossible for many women and especially women of color. In a recent study that SHRM (The Society for Human Resource Management) published this month (Women in Leadership: Unequal Access on the Journey to the Top), they sought to better understand the challenges women face in their attempt to advance in the workplace. SHRM surveyed HR professionals, individual contributors and managers from across the economy, finding that women report less tangible support from managers, reduced access to opportunities for promotion and increased challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The data is not shocking. Women are burned out at work and are not getting the support or the advancement opportunities they deserve. This is even more true for women of color. The study found that female managers of color are five times more likely (21 percent) than their white female counterparts (four percent) to say they have quit a job after being overlooked for a new leadership opportunity at work.
Here are some key findings from the report:
Female managers (55 percent) are more likely than their male counterparts (42 percent) to aspire to a higher-level role because they think they would be good at it.
Only 61 percent of women say that their manager encourages them to grow their career compared to 71 percent of men.
Female managers are less likely than male managers to say employees in their organization are made aware of internal job openings (78 percent versus 86 percent).
Female managers are less likely than their male counterparts to have reached their current role by being promoted internally (40 percent versus 48 percent).
As women move from individual contributors to managers, they become more likely to believe women in their organization are given fewer opportunities for upward career growth than men (24 percent versus 37 percent).
White female managers (65 percent), and especially female managers of color (57 percent), are less likely to feel included in key networks at their organization than male managers of color (68 percent) and white male managers (73 percent).
Female managers of color (56 percent) are much less likely to feel they can talk about their personal life with others at work without feeling judged than white female managers (70 percent), male managers of color (72 percent) and white male managers (79 percent).
Female managers with caregiving responsibilities (35 percent) are more likely to have experienced a pandemic-related career setback than their male counterparts (26 percent).
Perhaps one of the more hopeful pieces of their findings was that only half (52 percent) of HR professionals believe that senior leaders in their organization are held accountable for ensuring male and female employees have equitable access to career paths or opportunities that lead to leadership roles. Hopeful you ask? Yes, because with awareness comes the ability to change. The fact that more than half of HR Professionals willingly responded to the survey this way shows that people are recognizing an inherent, systemic problem. And with that recognition can come progress.
The report suggested five areas where companies can begin to make meaningful changes to support all employees, and especially women in their leadership journeys.
Develop a meaningful diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) strategy for their leadership pipeline that is aligned with the organization’s mission, vision and values.
Track and examine key DE&I metrics to identify gaps in their leadership pipeline and gauge progress toward their goals. Organizations that have been very successful at improving DE&I are 3x as likely as those that have been unsuccessful to track if promotion decisions are equitable, 4x as likely to track if performance evaluations are equitable, and 5x as likely to track if leaders support all staff equitably.
Identify hidden biases that may exist along the leadership pipeline and that create unequal access to important resources or advancement opportunities. To ensure men and women are equally supported as they move up, organizations should regularly audit their practices and policies from recruitment and hiring, to performance and development, to promotions and succession planning. Organizations should also consider the value of equipping people managers with training on topics like managing diverse teams and eliminating unconscious bias to enhance equity in day-to-day interactions.
Create more inclusive workplace cultures that foster a sense of belonging for all staff and at all levels. Previous SHRM research shows that workers who rate the inclusiveness of their workplace as excellent are less likely than workers who rate it as poor to be actively looking for another job (35% versus 51%). They’re also nearly two and a half times more likely to recommend their organization to others as a great place to work (90% versus 37%), and to feel respected and valued at work (92% versus 38%).
Implement “returnship” programs to engage women who may have left the workforce during the pandemic. Returnships provide valuable opportunities for organizations to access untapped female talent that may have previously been overlooked due to resume gaps. Rather than settling for jobs that are not commensurate with their expertise, programs like these can help women re-enter roles that are better aligned with their experience and knowledge and engage them in meaningful ways consistent with their career goals.
These are truly needle-moving ways to foster more equitable and healthier workplaces. Sure the ladder is still very broken, but with awareness, education, and then the right supports put into place, we can fix it, one rung at a time.
WIN is proud to be partnering with SHRM on both year round programming and on WIN Summit 2022.
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