Movement toward gender equality has stalled

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 05/11/2024

The movement toward gender equality has actually stalled in recent decades. Women’s labour force participation has levelled off, men and women remain concentrated into different occupations, and women continue to shoulder significantly more housework and childcare than men, two researchers say in an analysis of consultancy McKinsey’s annual report on women in the workplace published by Harvard Business Review.

They write that there are almost no improvements across generations. “In fact, not only are the experiences of women under 30 similar to those of women 50 and older — in some ways, they’re worse. Companies must do more to address the distinct obstacles that stall women’s progress early in their careers.”

The researchers are Marianne Cooper, PhD, sociologist at Stanford University and Priya Fielding-Singh, PhD, sociologist and senior manager of research and education at LeanIn.org. They are co-authors of the Women in the Workplace reports by LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Company.

Summary of their recommended actions: 

• Companies should start by monitoring representation at every level. Are women underrepresented at the entry level? Inclusive hiring and recruiting, can help companies ensure that younger women are entering the workforce at rates equitable to younger men.
• The greatest barrier to women ascending to the top is getting stuck at the entry level. Fixing the broken rung will require that companies take a closer look at their people processes to ensure fairness. Best practices involve tracking promotion rates by gender, race, and level to uncover hidden barriers, then working to mitigate and block the biases that can drive gender and racial disparities in performance evaluations and promotion rates.
• Companies need to broaden the conversation about ageism to include youngism. Address the distinct microaggressions and biases that younger women face at work and how these may undermine their advancement. When interviewed about their workplace, younger women talked about not being taken seriously and having their ideas ignored, which speaks to the ways in which women’s leadership potential is often overlooked and dismissed.

Their key findings in short:

• Women are underrepresented from the start of their careers, making up just 48% of entry-level employees despite holding 59% of bachelor’s degrees. Compared to men, they’re far less likely to get their first promotion to manager. This gender gap has not improved much over time.
• Sexual harassment remains as prevalent in corporate America as it was six years ago. “Indeed, despite younger women’s much shorter tenures, a third of them have experienced some form of sexual harassment over the course of their careers — the same as older women.”
• Things are at a standstill on the home front as well, with younger women with partners reporting that they’re doing the same amount of housework and childcare as older women. Across the generations, over a third of women with partners continue to take on most or all of the household responsibilities.
• Younger women are the most likely to confront ageism at work. While unfair treatment based on a person’s age is most commonly thought to harm older adults, “youngism” is just as significant a problem. Almost half of younger women say their age has negatively impacted their careers — that’s more than any other age group. And younger women are nearly twice as likely as younger men to report unwanted attention being drawn to their age. Younger women are twice as likely as older women to say their gender will make it harder for them to get ahead.