For the last four years, companies have reported that they are highly committed to gender diversity. But that commitment has not translated into meaningful progress.
Women continue to be vastly underrepresented at every level. For women of color, it’s even worse. Only about one in five senior leaders is a woman, and one in twenty-five is a woman of color.
Progress isn’t just slow—it’s stalled. And we know why.
In corporate America, women fall behind early and continue to lose ground with every step
According to research from the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI), the vast majority of women (85%) and
multicultural professionals (81%) need navigational support to advance in their careers but receive it less
often than Caucasian men. However, a 2010 Catalyst study revealed that more women than men have been
assigned mentors yet 15% more men won promotions. Why? The findings indicate that having more
mentorship did not lead to advancement but having a senior mentor in a position to provide sponsorship did.
What is the difference between having a mentor or having a sponsor?
In short, mentors advise you and sponsors advocate for you.
This report provides a perspective on several levers that could raise the priority of gender diversity and increase the efforts to achieve it within organizations. The first one is to convince the skeptics of the benefits of having more women in top management: after all, there’s still a long way to go to persuade most executive boards and male business leaders of this. The second is to make gender diversity development a priority within organizations. The third lever is the most important for long-term effectiveness: implement appropriate programs. Based on our survey and our experience of companies that are highly committed to this issue, the success of gender diversity initiatives depends above all on deploying comprehensive programs that comprise a broad range of measures. It is not enough simply to provide more flexible working conditions or career management. Reaching a critical mass of women in the top management of organizations requires a critical mass of measures, if we want to create deep-seated and sustainable change.
Women remain underrepresented in leadership roles, in spite of research indicating that gender- balanced leadership has a positive impact on the bottom line.
However, gender balance impacts performance only when the optimal balance is reached.
The results of the Sodexo study confirm that this balance corresponds to a male-female ratio between 40% and 60%, reinforcing that diversity is key to enhanced performance.
Entities with gender-balanced management performed better on all of the performance indicators measured, including employee engagement, brand awareness, client retention and three indicators of financial performance.
Teams at Sodexo within the optimum gender- balanced zone have experienced on average an increase of four points in the global engagement rate versus only one point for other teams between 2010 and 2012.
Women are almost half of the workforce, yet they are still getting pay less than men. They receive more college degree than men. Hispanic women and African American women get pay even less than men. For every 40 hours that Americans women work, they only get pay 80 cents for every dollar paid to men. Wage discrimination is a reality. Society needs to take a stand and fight for wages equality (NWLC.org). Although the equal pay act was implemented 50 years ago, women of every race and education level are still getting pay less than men. It only gets worse as women’s career progress. The wage gap possesses lots of negative impact on women and young girl who are growing up. It makes them feel less worthy and powerless. The gender gap should matter to everyone because it is a crucial issue that needs to be resolve because it can very be discouraging for women. After reviewing the data and pay gap between men and women, some questions begin to arise such as why do women get pay less than men, have less advantageous job than men? What can we, as, individuals, companies, women, and societies need do to change the pay gap that exists between men and women when we have the same qualifications as men? This Research aims to explore perceptions of the gender wage gap in a group of employees working in every industry. I found evidence that the gender wage gap persists and that feelings towards can demoralize employees in the workforce.
Accenture has found that a culture of equality—the same kind of workplace environment that helps everyone advance to higher positions—is a powerful multiplier of innovation and growth. Global gross domestic product would increase by up to US$8 trillion by 2028 if innovation mindset in all countries were raised by 10 percent. Diversity positively influences an innovation mindset, and equality is the multiplier. A culture of equality is anchored by three pillars: an Empowering Environment (one that trusts employees, respects individuals and offers freedom to be creative and to train and work flexibly), Bold Leadership (a diverse leadership team that sets, shares and measures equality targets openly), and Comprehensive Action (policies and practices that are family-friendly, support all genders and are bias- free in attracting and retaining people).
Valuing the risk of workplace sexual harassment
Using data on sexual harassment charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Hersch calculates the risk of sexual harassment by gender, industry, and age and establish that white females, but not nonwhite females, receive a compensating wage differential for exposure to a higher risk of sexual harassment.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Equality can’t wait. According to the World Economic Forum, at the current pace of change, it’s going to take 208 years to achieve gender equality in the United States. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If we all commit to taking action, change is possible. We asked LeanIn.Org—an organization that …
Although there is an abundance of research proving how great diversity is for business and for the economy, there are still many companies struggling to get it right. So who is leading the charge and what can we learn from them? We asked Ellevate’s Corporate Champions about what’s working in their organizations. Here are 5 ways they’re making change.