Breaking the Glass Ceiling 2020
Grab Your Shoes Ladies!
There’s Glass Everywhere
Regardless of which party you attend or what type of footwear you prefer (stilettos or flats), there are big and exciting moves happening. Our country has its first woman Vice President. Not only is she the first WOMAN, but the first African American and southeast Asian holding this position.
Personally, I’m most excited for all the little girls and young women who can identify with our new elect, and see that they are individuals with influence and endless opportunity. For now, let’s take a break from politics to celebrate women and understand how we can close the gender gap in the workplace.
At the Government level:
Recently, the World Bank’s Women Business and the Law report, measured gender discrimination in 187 countries and only 6 countries were found to give women equal legal work rights as men. Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg and Sweden were the countries named. The United States was ranked 19th in the world on its gender gap index, according to The World Economic Forum. The report specified political empowerment as the greatest gender equity issue for the United States.
Here’s why: In our current government, there are 127 women serving in Congress in 2020. This amounts to 23.7% of Congress, which has 535 members. Of these women, 48 are women of color: 22 are Black, 13 Latina, 8 Asian American/Pacific Islander, 2 Native American, 2 Middle Eastern/North African, and 1 multiracial.
At the corporate level:
U.S. economic empowerment was ranked higher, but women's earning power remains approximately 20% lower than men's. Women in the United States ranked very high on educational attainment. This looked at levels of literacy and enrollment in primary, secondary, and university education. There are currently more US women attending college than men.
According to Women in The Workplace Study, this was their 6th year looking at 300+ businesses and over 40,000 participants in the survey. They found that during the beginning of 2020, the representation of women in corporate America was trending positively.
From January 2015 to January 2020, representation of women in senior-vice-president positions grew from 23 to 28 percent, and representation in the C-Suite grew from 17 to 21 percent. Below, a Women in The Workplace 2020 (McKinsey & Company) article describes a few important adaptations businesses can do to support their employees, especially women.
What can businesses do?
Adjust performance and productivity measures for the current work situation.
This would make the workplace more sustainable for employees working from home, especially mothers. Women are often performing double duty in an environment that is not likely conducive to getting work done.
Keep business communication open and empathetic.
During COVID there are a lot of unknowns for many businesses and people are anxious and stressed about the future of their work. It makes a huge difference if you can communicate openly with management and have bosses who can be reassuring while keeping everyone up to date.
Set appropriate work boundaries such as specific times for meetings and after-hours communication.
Now that people are working at home, life/work balance is almost nonexistent. It gives employees flexibility to know there are certain hours set aside for important work communication and not to feel pressured outside of their regular working hours.
Mitigate gender bias with bias training, and keep track of promotions, raises, layoffs by gender to ensure equality.
Because employers are not able to see employees do their work, there is more room for assumption in regards to performance. A situation such as seeing/hearing kids playing in the background can unknowingly lead to bias. Many businesses have had to make changes and it's important that gender equality is considered with these changes.
Adjust policies to support employees, such as paid time off, available support for homeschooling, and mental health and bereavement counseling.
Many employees are unaware of counseling services they have access to. Just making it clear to your employees that these services are available can be incredibly helpful with morale in the workplace. Some businesses are also getting creative by adding COVID days off for special circumstances.
These ideas are beneficial to everyone and can help prevent burnout as well. All businesses can make a few adjustments to support their employees at this time. I’ll be honest; the statistics are daunting and the progress is SLOW. Not to mention, the COVID pandemic has severely affected women in the workplace.
About 2 million women were debating about leaving their jobs during the pandemic. It’s no surprise that responsibility for taking care of children (even more so when there is no school), falls heavily on women. The bottom line is we need to have better ways to support women in the workplace and give them equal opportunity for advancement.
“It’s no surprise that responsibility for taking care of children (even more so when there is no school), falls heavily on women.”
Though progress is being made, we have a long way to go as far as representation in our government at the highest levels. This is why we should support women running in our local governments as well.
These positions can be stepping stones to higher level positions in the future. As we have all heard, the future is female! It’s going to take hard work and support from everyone to close the gender gap. We are all stronger together.
Let’s continue to shatter those ceilings!
Books for Inspo
Random cute stuff you might need
Because you have kids or someone in your home that distracts you:
Because you’re a modern who does it ALL:
Because you need something to hold all the things:
Because you’re always on the go:
Do you struggle with side planks? Try a modified version on your forearm and knee. You can add different exercises in this position to work the side body while working towards a full side plank.