What I'm Reading

,

Women in the Workplace 2022

,

The 2022 Women in the Workplace report was released in mid-October and many of us have seen the big findings from the report hitting the headlines. While the talent pipeline has been suffering from a “broken rung” for a while, and the representation of women took a hit during the pandemic as women left the workforce, we’re now seeing more senior-level women leave their current organizations for companies that are more supportive.

When they leave, they take not only their talent but also much of the drive and effort behind creating those supportive work environments which are also increasingly more important to younger talent.

What do we do about it? My short answer is, let’s structure our organizations in a way that empowers managers to make a difference. Let’s set our managers up for success so they can set their direct reports up for success.

, ,

What Effective Inclusion Efforts Look Like

, ,

In our recent posts breaking down the 2021 Women in the Workplace Report we’ve focused both on key findings and recommendations to address burnout through boundary setting. This month we turn our attention to the recommendations focused on advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) through intentional training.

The report finds that the overall number of employees receiving training related to DEI is increasing, but there are key steps to take to ensure that training is actionable in order to drive change and increase inclusion within the organization.

,

Critical Boundary Setting: Organizations, Managers, Individuals

,

“As companies embrace flexibility, they also need to set clear boundaries”

The 2021 Women in the Workplace report summarizes this key recommendation so clearly. Pre-pandemic, boundaries were important, but to an extent some of them were ‘built in’ to our daily lives—the commute to the office, closing up the computer at the end of the workday, a peek at email on your phone but a response saved for tomorrow.

With all of the changes COVID-19 has brought, burnout is one that we have talked about extensively in the past two years. As we face yet another period of transition (back to the office, no wait—back to remote) it is a critical time to revisit the boundaries that organizations can set to create a sustainable flexible workforce that can readily adapt to the seemingly endless change and uncertainty.

Women in the Workplace 2021

In anticipation of the 2021 Women in the Workplace report, which was published in September, I was prepared for more bad news. Specifically I was preparing myself for a dramatic reduction in the representation of women in the corporate pipeline. After all, millions of women have left the workforce since the start of the pandemic. However, this year I was also surprised—more positively—to find that representation of women was still able to improve despite the challenges the pandemic has brought.

,

Retaining Women During COVID-19

,

As we continue to wrap our heads around concerning data points from the Women in the Workplace 2020 study and recent research from Deloitte, we ask ourselves what can be done to retain women in our organizations to avoid a reversal of the representation progress that has been made in recent years.

We’ve explored recommendations from a variety of sources and are guiding our clients to focus on 7 things to benefit all employees, but with a specific emphasis on the challenges and biases women in your organizations may be facing.

Women in the Workplace 2020: Spotlight on COVID-19

In years past, when the Women in the Workplace study by LeanIn and McKinsey and Company was released, I had been excited. Excited to see progress being made (even slowly) and new insights uncovered on how women can be better supported by their organizations.

The 2020 Women in the Workplace report was released last week, and like many other 2020 headlines, it did not bring with it this sense of excitement or hope. Despite my awareness that women are being disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, I did not anticipate some of these jarring data points.

What I'm Reading: Women in the Workplace 2019

Each year, we eagerly anticipate the release of the annual Women in the Workplace study conducted by LeanIn.org and McKinsey and Company. This year, the report’s fifth year, was no different. There are often new themes and new lenses on the topics of representation, bias, and how to mitigate unequal treatment in the workplace. Our big takeaway this year is a concept coined The Broken Rung. 

What I’m Reading: Invisible Women

I recently heard journalist Caroline Criado Perez interviewed on the podcast 99% Invisible. It just so happens that the podcast is aptly named for this episode which dives into Perez’s latest book: Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. The book explores the data gap in research and design—how so many of our systems and the products we use each day fail to consider women in their basic design. Designing for men is often the default and the range of outcomes can vary from lost time to lost lives.

,

What I'm Reading: “How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids”

,

Last month I wrote about the invisible workload that women carry and how I personally try to counteract it, which prompted a slew of messages from friends sharing their stories and perspectives. One of these friends, a great friend of mine from high school and new mom of a perfect baby boy, sent me a recommendation to check out a book she was reading: Jancee Dunn’s How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids. While I can confidently say that I have never hated my husband, my baby is only 18 months– there is still plenty of time for resentment to fester. In the spirit of research, I dove right in, and I’m glad that I did. 

,

What I’m Reading: We Should All Be Feminists

,

There it is again, that word—feminist. In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2012 TEDx talk, adapted to a published essay in 2014, she relays her early justifications of the term. “At one point, I was a happy African feminist who does not hate men and likes lip gloss and who wears high heels for herself and not for men,” she says. “That word is so heavy with baggage—negative baggage.”

,

5 Shows to Watch This Summer with Strong Female Leads

,

If you're going to have a marathon, then why not choose a show with a strong female lead at its center?  Thankfully, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon all have plenty of shows that tell the stories of dynamic, diverse women who are strong in a myriad of ways.

,

What I’m Watching: Ocean’s 8

,

Here are the facts:

  1. Ocean’s 8 has a star-studded, female-focused cast.

  2. Ocean’s 8 hit #1 at the box office, bringing in $41.5 million domestically opening weekend.

Most of the other things you will read about the film are based on opinion, and so is everything else I am about to say.