📰 1LV Round up: Once a month we will bring you a selection of articles, interviews and news that will make you think about gender equality and women in the workplace. ⬇️
Ageism for the old? Early-career women suffer more than any other group
The astonishing findings from the 10th Edition of the Women in the Workplace report by McKinsey and LeanIn.Org, suggest women are discriminated against at both the start and end of their careers. ‘Women feel their age impacts their ability for opportunity,’ said Alexis Krivkovich, senior partner at McKinsey & Company. ‘The real whammy for women is that that number is even higher earlier in their career. Nearly half of women under 30 say that their age is impacting their opportunities, and that is much higher than the percentage of men reporting the same. So you get hit on both sides.’
The broken rung data – which describes the attrition of women at each level of the corporate ladder – supports this. ‘This isn’t just something they feel; this is something the data shows. We joke in our team that it’s a bit like the avocado phenomenon: “Not ready, not ready, not ready, ripe, too late!”, added Krivkovich.Read more here
Women in the workplace 2024: Key insights
The McKinsey & Company report has become a barometer of what’s happening with women in the workplace. Key findings from the 2024 edition:
· Women have made gains, especially in senior leadership roles – 29% of c-suite position in 2024 compared with 17% in 2015…
· Women still face the barrier of the broken rung – entry-level men are promoted to manager at much higher rates than women. For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 81 women are promoted. For every 100 men promoted, just 54 black women get the same opportunity.
· An overall decline in corporate commitment to gender diversity – only 78% of companies now consider it a high priority, down from 88% in 2017.
Equal parental leave offered by Deloitte
The accounting group is the first of the Big Four to equalise its maternity and paternity leave allowance in a bid to boost the number of senior women. From January 2025 new fathers will get 26 weeks of fully paid leave – the same as new mothers. Currently, fathers can take only four weeks off with full pay after the birth of their child. ‘The evidence is clear about the impact of unequal parental leave on working mothers’ career progression,’ said Jackie Henry, Deloitte’s managing partner for people and purpose. ‘We know that key moment of birth for a child sets expectations and an allocation of responsibilities for the future, and traditionally that has fallen to the mother.’
‘Downgrade’ in equality
More than 50 rights organisations across Europe have expressed their ‘shock and dismay’ that Ursula von der Leyen has decided to do away with the standalone EU position of equality commissioner. It will be merged into a brief that also includes crisis management. It is described as a ‘downgrading’ of the fight against discrimination. ‘This is unacceptable,’ said the European Women’s Lobby on social media. ‘Equality deserves its own commissioner, not just a footnote in an overloaded portfolio.’
How the 1LV WE+ Measure is impacting women in the workplace
The One Loud Voice WE+ brand is all about Women and Equality and so much more. The three core pillars of work are: WE+ Measure, which is all about best practice metrics; WE+ Engagement, which is about gender partnerships; and WE+ Support which is advisory and coaching. The WE+ Measure allows organisations to measure their gender equity inputs against established best practices that achieve gender equality outputs. It benefits the organisation and the women who work there. It’s game changing. To find out more visit https://www.oneloudvoice.co.uk/benchmark
History footnote…
Did you know that in 1970 working women were refused mortgages unless they had a male guarantor?
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