Key Takeaways from McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2024: The 10th-anniversary report
I recently read McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2024 report and was surprised at how little progress has been made in terms of women’s advancement in the workplace. I really shouldn’t be shocked given the statistics that came out during the pandemic about how so many women exited the workforce for personal reasons. But it’s not encouraging to see some of the new statistics, and companies really need to pay attention to what their successful peers are doing to support women at work if expect to make progress.
In good news, McKinsey found that women today make up 29 percent of C-suite positions, (it was only 17 percent in 2015). Discouragingly, women of color represent only 7 percent of current C-suite positions. They also note that progress has been much slower at the entry and manager levels, which raises red flags, because that’s where you’re coming from if you’re going to rise to the C-suite. What does that mean for the future of women’s leadership?
Given this information, it would take 48 years to achieve true parity for all women, i.e., for the representation of white women and women of color in senior leadership to reflect their share of the U.S. population.
Another disappointing finding is that women continue to confront microaggressions as often today as several years ago, particularly LGBTQ+ women and women with disabilities. This makes it incredibly challenging for women to raise concerns and take risks at work.
What are the companies who’ve been the most successful with women’s advancement doing?
Prioritizing gender and racial diversity
Tracking attrition and promotion rates for women
Training managers and holding them accountable for supporting well-being and career growth
Ensuring hiring and performance reviews are fair
Conducting training to nurture equity and inclusion
Offering employee benefits geared to women’s needs
Instituting flexible working hours
It’s not rocket science, it’s a matter of spending the time and attention on these issues. To me this equates with all the stories of products that were never tried on women until more recently; the one that I always think of is athletic shoes which for a very long time were only designed based on male feet.
If you’re not focusing on what women need, how will you reach women as customers let alone retain them in your workforce?
Read the full report here