A Surviving Facts Blog
Two news stories hit my inbox within an hour of each other last week. Sadly they both spoke to the inequality of women in the workplace. Here are the headlines:
Women lose ground on Fortune 500 Europe.
Millions of work hours are lost each year to child care issues, a new index finds.
How in late 2024 are we still dealing with these inequities?
First, let’s deal with the data.
The Fortune 500 Europe is only in its second year. Even so, the study found a decline from 7.0% to 6.2% in female leaders in the Fortune 500 Europe. Women leadership on the US Fortune 500, on the other hand, remained steady at 10.4%.
The decrease from 7 to 6.2% may not seem high, but let’s put it in real numbers. This means that the number decreased from 35 to 31 female chief executives- meaning 4 female CEOs left their jobs. Additionally, the revenue of women-led companies combined decreased 20%. The Fortune 500 Europe makes up 57% of Europe’s GDP, 14% of the world’s.
The other study, a new set of data tracked by KPMG, reported that 1.4 billion (yes, billion) work hours are lost annually because of child care challenges. These numbers include both men and women. In fact, 1.6 million workers missed work because of child care issues, a 69% increase “from the average of the same month in the previous four years.” While the article I read does not delve into the male vs female impact, it does note women are affected “disproportionately.”
Whoa. These are some serious- and deeply insightful numbers. Any decrease in female leadership- whether Europe or the US or other parts of the world- is a loss. As we already know, women’s representation at the top is low. In the US, only 52 women are running a Fortune 500 US. In general, Fortune asserts that women’s progress has slowed– it’s at a “glacial pace,” the article says.
What’s going on?
If I ask Google’s experimental generative AI, it tells me that a “well-funded conservative movement,” “systemic” and unconscious bias and “patriarchal attitudes” have slowed women’s progress. It also mentions child care access and expense as an impacting factor. In other words, women’s rights have regressed rather than progressed and adequate support of women in the workforce doesn’t exist.
Now, mind you, Google’s generative AI summarizes hundreds if not thousands of sources. I think “she” (I am going to call her a she) did a really good job this time. Her summaries were consistent with my own fairly exhaustive review of numerous studies. All of these studies lamented lack of progress and the current holding pattern of women waiting- like parked airplanes on the runway- to take off.
Women aren’t taking off. Anecdotally, but aligned to the data, I have seen the number of well paid women leaders being forced out of executive positions, especially around the ages of 59-60. One woman I recently interviewed- future blog coming!- spoke about sudden shifts in attitude beginning in 2016-17. We know what happened in 2016, and Ms. Google AI points that out. That was a period of remarkable retrenchment in equality progress across many diverse groups. If you question this, check the research.
In the interview referenced above, the female leader saw her executive team sever or displace 3 female executives at the C-level, a decrease of over 30%. What’s worse, new roles were filled by young men (in their 30s) rather than by women. Were no viable female candidates available? She asserted, “many qualified women were available both internally and externally but they weren’t selected to interview or progress.”
Other female executives have seen similar trends. There’s even a word for this: “The Great Breakup” (isn’t it interesting that this name is relationship based, as if women were part of the decision). Forbes, the BBC, Axios, NPR, CNBC- all published articles on this trend. Their conclusion? That company rhetoric on equality and inclusion is disconnected from company policies, behavior and actions. I talked about this in several of my previous blogs: words are not enough. Companies must complete overhauls if women are to find the right kind of environment for their success.
The system extends beyond corporations. Especially in the US, government and state policies do not provide systems of support to provide women with options to be in the workforce while child-rearing. What’s worse is that we have never codified in the “freest country in the world” that all men AND women of any color are created equal. Constitutional originalism may look to original forefathers intent but the world has changed greatly since then. Increasing inequality under the guise of original intent is simply ridiculous.
The articles I read also specifically called out the ongoing demoralizing impact of micro aggression. Continually questioning women’s judgment, using pejorative terms for female assertiveness, limiting space for women at the top (thereby creating competition rather than room at the table for all of the best talent) and lacking support and mentorship…. All of these erode women’s ambition. After all, no human being can remain perpetually in fight, flight or freeze mode. We know this is detrimental to both mental and physical health- and we’re seeing significant increases in the numbers of women with chronic diseases.
I hear what some of you are thinking: “well, that’s the way corporate work is. If a woman can’t stay in the frying pan of corporate competition and power, she needs to get out.” But here’s my question: who designed the frying pan environment? Why does a frying pan even need to exist?
The constant refrain I hear from corporate women- and these are my friends- is exhaustion and fatigue. I myself was guilty of that until I left a position. A family member recently said to me, “Do you realize you haven’t used the word “exhausted” once since you left?” I hadn’t realized but she was right- and I’ve had plenty of hurdles, challenges and stress since then.
With our recent political environment, important conversations are happening. One is the double standard. This is not a political statement. It’s a cold hard truth. One candidate cannot express a healthcare plan, the other does. One makes vague comments on the economy- which, by all objective measures, is booming, by the way- while the other comes back, after criticism, with some pretty specific details. Yes, the woman is held to a much higher standard.
What greatly saddens me is that my daughters have fewer rights than I did growing up. I have a distinct memory of saying to myself in the late 70s/early 80s,”by the time I have kids, we won’t have to worry about this anymore.” How ironic, then, that we have to worry now more than ever. When a state discusses monitoring a women’s pregnancy before she leaves and after she returns to the state, we are talking about Atwood’s Gideon in The Handmaid’s Tale, not the America of freedom I have known before. What effect is this having on today’s young women? Remember, I have two daughters, and neither of them nor their friends want to have babies. The current regression of rights will have the exact opposite effect from the goal it aims to achieve.
We haven’t done a good enough job at holding companies accountable for equality either. Yes, the #Metoo movement raised awareness. But companies, with the help of laws and legislation, find loopholes, protections and workarounds, and thereby always regain the upper hand. The message: corporations are more important than human rights. By all means, let’s protect a company rather than let the lived experiences of real people be known.
So, yes, we are seeing erosion, multi-layered erosion which leads to an entire glacier falling into the water. Hey, glacial pace may have been and continues to be slow, but we NEED that glacier. As more glaciers collapse into the oceans, and as the waters warm, we are actually creating an even bigger problem for ourselves.- ruining entire coastal regions and injuring or impacting many more human beings than if we had dealt with the problem in the first place. And so it’s the same with women’ progress. Lack of their progress is already affecting men (see KPMG study). Equality and equity is good for both women and men.
What are we scared of? Loss of power, hegemony, familiarity, social structure; fear of new concepts, new systems, substantial change, shifting demographics; the evolution over time of familiar systems and institutions. I get that. Change is scary. But change is going to happen whether we want it to or not. Do we really want a country of limited freedoms? Or do we acknowledge the inevitability of change? For me, it’s change. How exciting it would be to build a future for our children. A future into which they want to bring children? A future they are excited about rather than terrified of? The choice is now- literally. In the meantime, I’m going to be looking at the data to see if we are reversing the trend of regression or stopped progress.
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Walk the Moon 