September 17, 2024
Ten years ago, I was feeling burned out after leaving a corporate job in the technology industry, where I had faced and witnessed bias, racism, and sexual harassment. The prevailing narrative around me about gender inequality was that women weren’t driven or confident enough to succeed in the workplace. Given that, seeing such ambitious, brilliant women colleagues — particularly women of color — face such inequities felt like cognitive dissonance. And yet the “women need to do better” narrative persisted.
At the time, a friend sent me a new McKinsey and Lean In “Women in the Workplace” report. In bold letters at the top were the words “Corporate America is not on a path to gender equality.” I felt both stunned and validated. Here was actual research that literally captured the observations and experiences I had been grappling with. The study spurred me to do my own research, advocacy, and writing on how to fix gender and racial equity at work.
Fortunately, much has improved in the past decade. We’ve learned to more openly accept gender and racial inequalities as structural issues, not what I call “fix women” ones. Leaders have stepped up commitments to do better at solving for both. Words like “bias” “microaggressions,” and “racism” are all more accepted in the corporate lexicon. (So much so that I’ve even made the case for leaders to retire the term “microaggressions” in favor of “exclusionary behaviors.”)
Despite this progress, gender equity still remains uneven. Coupled with recent political attacks on the very concept of DEI and declines in corporate commitments to racial and gender equity, there’s concern that the next decade may not bring as much progress as the last one — which is why we need to keep our foot on the accelerator when it comes to achieving gender parity at work.
Progress on Corporate Gender Advancement Is Mixed
Since it was first released in 2015, the Women in the Workplace report has become more intersectional and nuanced, getting more detailed about the particular obstacles preventing women of color from progressing in corporate America. The latest version of the report looks back on the past decade of women’s experiences. As it stands, women today make up 29% of C-suite positions, up from 17% in 2015. That represents a meaningful gain, but at the current rate of progress, it will take women of color 48 years to reach parity in corporate America, compared with 22 years for white women.
The report also finds that being an “only” — that is, one of the only people of their race or gender in the room at work — continues to be a common experience for women, with no change since 2018: One in five women today say they’re onlys for their gender and two in five are onlys for their race. Onlys report encountering more microaggressions at work, which profoundly detract from their workplace experiences, and are also more likely to feel they’re under additional scrutiny.
The report also finds that organizational and leader commitments to gender and racial diversity are declining. In 2019, 87% of companies cited gender diversity as a high priority, and 77% cited racial diversity as high priority. In 2024, those numbers dropped to 78% and 69%, respectively, which the report’s authors rightly described as “deeply concerning.” That tracks with my recent experiences in my work as an inclusion strategist: I’ve observed a decline in DEI commitments at a number of organizations. Moreover, I’ve seen leaders give in to political pressure to step back on commitments to racial equity, particularly after last year’s Supreme Court decision to limit affirmative action in colleges.
Recommendations for Advancing Gender Equity
“What’s concerning in this year’s report is the commitment to diversity is starting to slide backward,” Lean In’s founder, Sheryl Sandberg, told me. “Companies have the power to drive significant change, and now isn’t the time to slow down.”
So how can organizations that haven’t backed down on their commitments — or those that have even doubled down and resisted opposition to DEI — continue to make progress? What actually works?
As it turns out, many of the tactics experts and scholars have been recommending to company leaders for years have been paying off and yielding progress for women in the workplace. Here are some of the specific recommendations cited in the report:
Reducing bias in hiring
Hiring processes are riddled with bias — think screening out resumes with names that are recognizably non-Anglo Saxon or hiring for “culture fit.” Organizations must identify and root out those biases using interventions known to be successful, such as: removing names and other gender and racially identifiable information from resumes so that women and people of color aren’t screened out in the first stage; bringing consistency to the interview process by using standardized questions for candidates; and ensuring there’s gender and racial diversity in the candidate pool.
Reducing bias in performance evaluations
Men often get more actionable feedback at work than women do, and without standardized performance evaluations, it’s easy for managers to fall prey to gender and racial biases when making promotion decisions. This means the performance-evaluation process can harm not only women’s career advancement, but it can also be a drag on retention.
As one respondent, a Latina senior manager, stated in the report: “I think about keeping women and women of color satisfied and staying with the organization, and I think the biggest thing companies could do is to make sure they are not being reviewed more harshly than their peers. Often, we are held to higher standards than our peers, which impacts us for salaries or promotions.”
While bias training as a standalone intervention isn’t sufficient to reduce bias in the workplace, it can be effective when it’s targeted. When managers making performance evaluation and promotion decisions are made aware of how biases show up in performance evaluations, there’s some evidence to suggest they’ll consider them when making decisions about compensation and promotions.
Activating managers to build an inclusive culture
Success in advancing gender equity requires leadership commitment, consistency, and accountability, driven by personal buy-in on why DEI is important. “When we work with leaders, we start with building a shared understanding that inclusion is a key leadership skill and they should hold themselves accountable for leading with inclusion,” as leadership and workplace culture expert La’Kita Williams recommends. “Leaders should also look out for systemic barriers that are in place for women of color and actively advocate for change in the system.”
The good news is that the report cites a significant rise in managers prioritizing inclusion over the past decade. Unfortunately, many managers also reported a critical lack of support and feeling spread too thin, with 42% reporting often or always feeling burned out compared to 33% of non-managers. Organizations must find ways to reduce managers’ individual workloads so they have more time to support their teams. They can also provide managers with tools such as standardized questions to gauge their team members’ well-being and sample scripts for important career conversations.
Inspiring employees to become agents of change
I’ve often observed a gap between the “why” of DEI and how employees can actually connect with it. The report recommends rallying employees by making explicit the link between an organization’s values and advancing women, for example: “If your company values innovation, share research findings that diverse teams are often more innovative. Or, if you are customer focused, talk about how having more women in leadership can help enhance products geared to women.”
Creating allyship opportunities for men
Because they still comprise the majority of leadership positions, it’s critical for male employees to participate in advancing their women colleagues. Organizations should consider sponsoring allyship groups in the same way they sponsor other ERGs. These allyship groups often provide camaraderie and a structured way for men and other allies to participate. Employer-sponsored groups signal that allyship is aligned with company priorities, which can help motivate men to get involved.
Providing benefits that support parents, caregivers, and employees facing health issues
There’s been a significant improvement in company benefits that support a vast swath of employees over the past decade. From extended parental leave to backup childcare and increased flexibility, employer benefits are linked to higher rates of happiness and better employee retention. While beneficial to all, they’re especially helpful to women, who are more likely to have caregiving responsibilities.
. . .
Without a doubt, we cannot back down from the DEI progress that’s been made in the past 10 years. It’s especially concerning to see company commitments lessening on gender and racial equity precisely when we need them the most. I’ve been heartened to see some forward-thinking leaders and organizations continuing (and in some cases even increasing) their commitments. But we truly need everyone to be involved, particularly as we know progress is still slow for women of color.
While I don’t make the business case for DEI any longer, there are undeniable reasons for why leaders need to stay the course. As Sandberg emphasized to me, “Leaders need to stay fully committed to gender and racial equity, and to ensure that managers and employees know that diversity benefits everyone — and it’s good for business.”