Overcoming Barriers to Gender Equity in the Time of COVID: A Call to Action for Leaders
By Monica Gupta and Kim Ferrer
Did you know that 1 in 4 women are considering downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce? This has significant and direct implications for your organization. Now is the time to lead holistically and promote gender equity so that all employees can thrive.
Research has repeatedly shown that companies and teams with a strong contingent of women in leadership roles are more innovative and productive. They enjoy higher levels of collaboration, innovation, psychological safety and collective intelligence. They outperform the competition.
Although women (and particularly women of color) remain dramatically underrepresented in the workforce, numbers across the board were slowly improving over the past 6 years. That said, companies still had plenty of work ahead of them, but had made marginal gains in workplace equality, including safer workspaces and a smaller salary gap between men and women in the same kinds of roles.
Enter COVID-19. In a matter of months, work-life conditions for individuals and families across the globe have completely changed — as have the conditions for gender equity. Organizations of all sizes, representing all industries, find themselves at a crossroads. Will they seize the opportunity to push for the truly transformative progress that employees and organizations need? Or will they retreat?
We believe the leaders of tomorrow will push forward. They’ll use mounting evidence — such as the University of Southern California’s ongoing coronavirus survey finding that job losses, additional childcare duties and mental distress have all disproportionately affected women since the start of the pandemic — as evidence that they need to fully commit to gender equity. They’ll redouble their efforts to avoid the escalating loss of valuable talent. And they will simply refuse to participate in what Allison Robinson, Founder and CEO of The Mom Project, recently described as the dramatic backslide in workplace gender equality brought on by COVID-19.
The real question, then, is how? Specifically:
What steps can leaders take to better support women and parents so that they can care for their families and keep working — at the same time reducing the stress that is piling up and holding back all employees?
What will it take to collectively keep our economy from experiencing the projected $3.41 billion loss expected in the wake of women and single parents’ departure from the workforce?
How can we prevent the 1 in 4 women who reported contemplating what many would have considered unthinkable less than a year ago: downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce?
Is it possible to finally build the flexible, collaborative, outcomes-focused workplace that we all crave? Can we finally step away from the rigid notion of an “ideal worker” who participates at certain hours, on certain days, and always prioritizes work over family and health?
Three keys to stopping the backslide
Overall, we need to recognize women as the truly valuable contributors to the workforce that they are. Women not only add billions to the economy, but bring diverse and crucial ideas, strengths, and skills to their teams. But a change in attitude won’t be enough. Here are three things you can do to stop the gender equity backslide and create a positive, supportive environment and employee experience for all employees.
1. Communicate & Support
Leaders need to approach gender equity, and all DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives, with authenticity. To communicate and support your employees you must first understand why you’re doing it. This means being genuine about your desire to change and in the actions you take to make those changes.
Questions to ask yourself include:
Have I done the work to define the business case for DEI and, more specifically, gender equity, at my company?
Have we adequately communicated how COVID and increased awareness around racial injustices have changed the business case?
Does the executive leadership team buy in and understand the call to action?
Once the senior leadership team is aligned on “the why,” you must communicate it with clarity, consistency, and vulnerability. You’ll need to tell your story and encourage other leaders to do the same. Make communicating the why integral to your strategy, not an afterthought.
It’s important for you as a leader to share your vision, but also to ask for help in creating the new direction. If you have a women’s employee resource group, every single group member should understand the why and communicate it in a similar fashion. They all may know their individual whys, which is important, but being able to share the company’s why around gender equity, and do so with intent and purpose, is what helps other people follow.
As a leader, it is your responsibility to recognize your own bias and to authentically promote belonging. You can do this by sharing your own stories — showing how the current situation is impacting your own life both at work and at home, and that you’re ready to help the company address it.
Having leaders who are comfortable sharing stories and talking about key issues makes it safe for others to do the same. People’s comfort levels in talking about topics traditionally deemed taboo at work will go up, in turn raising awareness around gender equity issues in general.
2. Listen & Learn:
We all want to be heard and to know that our voice has been taken into consideration. As a leader, you can host formal or informal listening sessions to better understand the issues your employees face. Make these sessions actionable learning opportunities for participants, facilitators and the company so that employees know the sessions truly matter — and that you’re not just gathering data.
Next, survey employees on gender equity (and other topical) issues. This is not an engagement survey, but instead a survey about what inhibits employees from feeling like they can bring their whole selves to work. Encourage them to submit specific suggestions for what you can do to create a more inclusive environment, rather than only responding to how engaged they feel. This is the difference between gathering data for a report and gathering it to take action.
Last, learn where you stand today. Leaders need to do the work to understand what gender and other forms of representation look like across the company, including the current composition of your leadership team. If you truthfully acknowledge where you stand today, and create a space for your organization to discuss this, you will better know how you can improve.
3. Plan & Act
Now that you know your business case and you’ve heard what the most important issues are for employees from the listening sessions and surveys, your last step is to leverage your network of internal influencers and build a comprehensive plan together.
As you build this plan, it’s important to remember that shifting mindsets and culture takes time. You will need to coelevate - meaning make tweaks as you gain buy-in and feedback from key stakeholders. Make sure to build your plan in a way that it fits into the broader company strategy, so it can be easily communicated and reinforced.
If you are an individual leader, proactively mentor or sponsor at least one female at your organization. Commit to demanding a diverse pool of candidates to choose from when you make the next hire on your team. Call out biases when you see them and hold your team accountable to inclusive leadership behaviors. Identify action steps you can take to support more women and a more inclusive environment, and then hold yourself accountable to that.
At sr4 Partners, we believe that part of a cohesive plan to promote gender equity is to train all people leaders to lead inclusively.
People leaders have the most power over individual employee experiences. According to a Gallup study, a person’s manager is the primary factor in an employee’s engagement. Training your people leaders to understand their biases, manage diverse talent, and develop cultural competencies is a key step to building a more inclusive and equitable workplace.
Lastly, assess and adjust. Evaluate the effectiveness for your initiatives annually (or quarterly if you can) and make adjustments as needed. When you make gender equity and DEI goals part of the overall company strategy and communicate them clearly, they become exponentially more likely to stick — and to succeed.
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This article was written from content presented during an Ignite by sr4 leadership community forum on “Gender Equity in the Time of COVID”. At sr4, we help organizations improve their organizational health and performance through healthier leaders, more cohesive teams, a thriving culture, and an inclusive approach to change. Learn more about the Ignite by sr4 leadership community here or reach out here if you’d like to to discuss how we might be able to help promote gender equity initiatives at your organizations.