3 Powerful Practices That Help Women Advance At Work
3 Powerful Practices That Help Women Advance At Work
What helps women advance in the workforce? This International Women’s Day, we draw three insights from research to suggest how companies and executives can help achieve #EachforEqual. GETTY
This Sunday, March 8th, is International Women’s Day. Founded by the United Nations in 1975, this is the 45th year of observance, and yet the fight for equality continues globally. This year’s theme, #EachforEqual, is a reminder that “an equal world is an enabled world” where each of us have a role to play in fighting bias, improving situations, and celebrating women’s achievements. (See the official website for more details.)
At the Center for Values-Driven Leadership, we help executives create companies where men and women flourish. Yet as we look across the corporate landscape, it’s clear that as leaders advance through organizations, it’s most often men who are promoted into executive leadership positions. Last year’s Fortune 500 featured more female CEOs than ever before: just 33.
How do we overcome the obstacles that keep women from reaching the highest levels of organizational life? Below, we draw from recent research to suggest three new insights that help answer this question.
Three insights that help women advance at work
Get rid of cultures of overwork
New research featured in Harvard Business Review went inside a global consulting firm – the sort of firm that expects weekly travel and 24/7 availability – to find out why women weren’t advancing. Traditional logic says it is because of what researchers call “the work/family narrative,” the idea that women’s commitment to their families makes them unwilling to put in the long hours necessary to advance in a demanding organization”.
The work/family narrative implies that it is a woman’s choice that holds her back. Not advancing because you don’t want to travel every week? That’s your problem, not the company’s.
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amberjohnson-jimludema/2020/03/07/advancing-women/#4e004e963798
