How can we really advance women in the workplace? Here’s what I’ve learned

How can we really advance women in the workplace? Here’s what I’ve learned

This is Working Together, a weekly series on the changing face of U.S. business. If you like what you’re reading, send to friends, have them subscribe using the button above and share using #WorkingTogether. Let’s dive right in. 

This Monday was Women’s Equality Day, a day intended to celebrate women earning the right to vote through the 19th amendment. Yet nearly 100 years since this important milestone, women across industries are not advancing at the same rate as their male peers. 

It can be frustrating when we think about how slow progress has been to achieving equality in the workplace. So instead, let’s focus on the practical solutions. Since launching Working Together in March, I’ve sat down with dozens of leaders who are tackling this issue in different ways. Here are just a few of the solutions that appear to be moving the needle:

  • Sponsor someone at work who doesn’t look like you. It’s common to strike up relationships at work with people who have similar backgrounds as you do. But with a majority of senior leadership across most companies being white and male, that means that white men are disproportionately getting access to high-powered sponsors who can help them advance in their career. As I discussed last week with The Female Quotient's Pilar Harris and WIE Network's Dee Poku Spalding, it’s essential that leaders go out of their way to sponsor or mentor people within their organization that don’t look like them. Only then will we see power structures in the workplace begin to shift to favor women of all backgrounds. 
  • We’re all bias. Accept that and move on. We all want to think of ourselves as “good people,” particularly when we think about ourselves at work. The problem, however, is that this can get in the way of us seeing our biases in the workplace for what they really are, NYU Stern School of Business Professor Dolly Chugh shared on the show earlier this summer. The reality is, we all come into the office with preconceived notions about people based on our past experiences. The next time that you find yourself assuming something about a co-worker based on what they look like, don’t ignore it. Spend time thinking about why your assumption may not be fair. 
  • See your difference as a strength, not a weakness. When the CEO of Siemen’s USA Barbara Humpton was rising in her career, she was once told that she didn’t present herself like other senior leaders in her industry. She was bubbly and energetic and not afraid to be optimistic about things at work. At first, the comment caught her off guard, but rather than try and hide the qualities that made her different, Humpton realized that she could use them to her advantage. She now seeks out people on her team who are different than she is. "Leaders will often have this imprint of what they are looking for," she said. "There is real power in surrounding yourself with people who look, act and think differently than you do." 

What are practical things that we can all do — men and women — to ensure women are getting equal access to opportunities at work? In your own career, what are some key moments that allowed you to take on more responsibility? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

What’s Working

Customers first. More clients of big banks are requesting that they work with female financial advisors, so firms are increasing the number of women they have in advisory roles. “It’s not that women make better advisers. It’s that prospects are now more vocal that they want diversity from the people they get advice from,” said UBS’s Jane Schwartzberg. [WSJ]

Celebrating Venus. A profile of Venus Williams tracks the many ways that she moved the tennis world forward throughout her career. “Venus was never just a player. Her job was never simply to swing a racket and win sets, though that was required. Her job was to change the game." [NYT Magazine

What Needs Work

20 million strong. While companies have made efforts to be more inclusive, the 20 million eligible workers with disabilities often get left behind. Unconscious bias combined with managers making assumptions about how a disability will impact a worker’s productivity seem to be to blame. [Fortune]

Enabling toxicity? When leaders focus on the results of their employees, they can often miss signs that high-performing workers are terrible to their colleagues. Executives need to do a better job at examining not just the results of the business, but how those results were achieved. [HBR]

Paycheck (un)fairness. In March, the House of Representatives passed the Paycheck Fairness Act. But the act, which helps ensure women are paid equally as well as grants protections to women who face retaliation for discussing salaries, has languished in the Senate for more than 100 days. [Fortune

Who’s Pushing Us Forward

Scaling while pregnant. While growing New York City-based feminine care product company Lola, Jordana Kier went out on maternity leave. Her co-founder Alex Friedman had two children as well during the early stages of the business. How did Kier and Friedman launch a company that allowed they to grow their families alongside their business? What are best practices that other companies can learn from?

Join us here on Working Together Live for an open conversation on these topics and more. 

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Leonard Higgs

Structures, at Kent PLC

5y

Mixed feelings around this: on the one hand I'm saddened to see that the struggles taken up boldly by the girls I went to college with are still holding women down. On the other hand I'm encouraged to see these issues being pushed up to the surface of our collective conscious (yet again) by the women of today, young and old. Still a core issue: men's willingness to accept the validity of women's grievances AND lend a hand in their good fight to rectify age-old problems and injustices.

Like
Reply
Lisa Weiss

Independent Communications Consultant

5y

This is why I'm on the board of a new non-profit called Working for Women - our goal of is to connect businesses interested in employee engagement that helps more women get into and succeed in the workforce and achieve economic independence.  Any businesses want to hear more?  Let me hear from you.  And check out workingforwomen.org.

Joel Perez

Independent Adjuster, Home Inspector, Programmer

5y

By treating them just like the guys. No special favors. If they suck, they suck because they suck, not because they're women. If they are great, they are great because they are great, not because they're a woman.

Mildred Williams

Student at Walden University

5y

Thank you!

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