New Analysis Reveals Women Struggling to Rise to Leadership

Sarasota, FL (WorkersCompensation.com) – Job seekers, especially women, are focusing on flexible work arrangements, well-being, diversity, equity, and inclusion according a recent report from McKinsey & Company. 

Analysts from McKinsey & Company reviewed data from 333 companies across the U.S. and Canada. Additionally, they reviewed responses of over 40,000 employees from 55 companies who participated in the Employee Experience Survey. Employees were asked about their overall job satisfaction, working arrangements, advancement, and employee well-being. Participants were categorized by gender, ethnicity, roles, and family status. Human resource departments also provided information on their gender diversity policies.

For the eight consecutive year, the analysts found that for every 100 men that are promoted from an entry-level manager position, only 87 women are promoted, only 82 women of color are promoted, and only 75 Latinas are promoted. Taking those statistics into consideration, within the past year 29 percent of women have expressed a desire to take on a less demanding job or reducing hours, or leaving the workplace all together. By comparison, 22 percent of men have expressed a desire to reduce their workload and demand. While the percentage of those that actually followed through with those desires is much lower, the fact remains that women leaders left their positions at the highest rate in years, resulting in an unprecedented gender gap.  

Overall, 43 percent of women leaders stated they were burned out, compared to 31 percent of male leaders at the same level. According to the report, there are several common factors driving women leaders to leave. 

Resistance in promotion and lack of recognition were cited as two of the major elements driving the desire to leave. Women were two times as likely as men to be mistaken for a junior position. Thirty-seven percent of the women leaders polled have had a coworker get credit for their ideas, compared to 27 percent of men leaders. 

Black women leaders face even more barriers in advancing and lack of recognition, according to the poll. Twenty percent of black women leaders indicated that they had experience someone implying or stating they were not qualified. By comparison, 12 percent of women leaders overall and only 6 percent of men leaders had experienced sentiments of lack of qualification. 

Thirty-eight percent of black women leaders stated they had been mistaken for a junior level position. In comparison, 26 percent of all women leaders and only 13 percent of men leaders were mistaken for having a lower position. Over half of the black women leaders polled,55 percent, stated they had experience having their judgement questioned. Thirty-nine percent of all women leaders, and only 28 of percent of men leaders stated their judgement had been questioned. 

Women spend two times the amount as men on fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in an effort to retain employees. However, 40 percent of the women leaders polled stated that their efforts were not recognized in performance reviews. Analysts noted that women leaders were 1.5 times as likely as men to leave a job due to a lack of commitment to DEI. 

Women leaders clearly want a better work culture. In fact, 49 percent of the women leaders polled stated that flexibility is one of the top three things they look at when considering a new company or remaining where they are. Only 34 percent of men leaders polled cited flexibility as a top priority. 

Only 1 in 10 women expressed a desire to work mostly on site. The ability to work remotely has resulted in lower levels of burnout, due in part to fewer microaggressions, which are experienced more by women with disabilities, women of color, and LGBTQ+ women.  While 71 percent of human resource managers state that remote work has helped to find and retain more talent from diverse backgrounds, women are reporting a lack of engagement and support from their teammates and managers. 

With an aging female workforce that is clearly unhappy and under-rated, retaining young women leaders is critical for the future of business. Two-thirds of women under the age of 30 state they would be more interested in advancing if they saw the desired work-life balance in senior leaders. While they are watching an older generation of women leaders navigate their careers and set priorities, it’s apparent that flexibility and commitment to DEI and well-being is an even stronger game changer. In fact, for women under the age of 30, 76 percent citied flexibility as becoming more important in the last 2 years. Commitment to employee well-being had also become more important in the last 2 years to 68 percent of young women under the age of 30. 

The writers of the report urge employers to implement in depth policies that do more than check a box in their efforts to be more inclusive and develop well-being in the workplace. They assert that to implement positive change, it’s important to encourage more women into leadership and to take deep dive in learning how to retain the women leaders already in place. 

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