Gender Diversity in Organizations - 2

My experience with mentoring young women suggests that women pay the motherhood penalty. Do you agree?

Women in the Workplace, a survey conducted by LeanIn.org and McKinsey, notes that women are less likely to advance than men, hold fewer roles leading to top management positions, and are a century away from gender parity in the C-suite.

We are a century away from achieving Gender Pay Parity too. Imagine!

Women will get equal pay in 118 years according to World Economic Forum . Almost no progress on wage equality around the globe in past seven years, according to report

The Unconscious Bias

Dell discovered the unconscious bias in its male employees when it conducted one-to-one closed room interactions with them under a program called Men Advocating Real Change. The fact that many were not even aware of it was a clincher.  “There are more men in corporate leadership and if they don’t want it or drive gender diversity, this change will never happen.”

Every Men and Women should read book Own it by Aparna Jain to learn more about unconscious bias against women at workplace and stories of Indian women at workplace.

India is categorized as the “Under the 30% representation of women at workplace”

In Corporate world,

At entry level – we have 30% Women representation

By the time women reach Mid-Level – the figure drops to 15%

And at Senior Level, CEOs, and CXOs – Women representation is mere 4-5%

The pipeline of talent dries upwards and not many women can be seen in the C-suite.

What happens from entry to senior level that Women drop out of Workforce significantly?

Let us examine …..

We get married

We go on Maternity Break

We have babies

We take sabbatical

We have homes to take care of

We put Career as Second priority because Indian Women and Sacrifices is synonymous, you know

So essentially corporate world penalizes Women to have babies and to take care of homes and husbands,

Instead of Making the Workplaces Flexible, and offering Flexi-work options to both Men and Women.

Instead of offering Paternity leave, so that Men share responsibilities of babies, companies have expectations from Women not to produce babies at all. Ridiculous!

Facebook and Apple – 2 Companies and their Leaders I admire, Sheryl Sandberg and Steve Jobs.  Apple said in its diversity report that its workforce was 70% male, while Facebook reported its workforce was 69% male.

These 2 companies rolled out policy to encourage Women to Freeze their Eggs.

Facebook will pay up to $20,000 while Apple provides perks in effort to attract more women

The idea of freezing eggs was first proposed for cancer patients as chemotherapy can damage a woman’s eggs.

But companies want Diversity Targets to be met at all levels , so instead of making our Workplaces  Inclusive for Women,  let’s ask  Women to freeze eggs so that they don’t quit jobs for making  babies at peak time in their careers.

Research Findings

55% organizations admit that there is still a compensation gap between #women & men - Times Job Survey

Women still don’t change jobs for High Compensation but Men do  – research

Women feel they are less supported than men at home, (McKinsey). We don’t need a research study for that. Women experience it day in day out!

Women negotiate less than Men. Women don’t negotiate for compensation even when they are deserving – research

So, Working Women must learn to negotiate tactics and enroll in a negotiation course.

You know what, it doesn’t end there. So Women who learn to negotiate are not liked by colleagues at workplace - Another Research study

Damn if you do, damned if you don’t.

Diversity and Inclusion go hand in hand.

“You can get high diversity ratios but if your culture is not right then you can’t get those diverse opinions.” 

You need to make a gender inclusive culture at workplace.

So it all boils down to Culture.