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That topic is The Other 50%.\u00a0
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And by that I mean, of course, Women.
Women make up 50% of the world\u2019s population, but it is shocking how little power, venture capital, leadership positions, status, influence and control over their own lives most women have. I am not an expert on all the statistics,\u00a0but it is a subject I think we need to pay closer attention to.\u00a0All<\/strong>\u00a0of us, men as well as women.
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So let\u2019s dive into it!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WHERE WE ARE…<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For the past eight years, McKinsey has conducted research into\u00a0Women in the Workplace<\/a>\u00a0and they publish an annual report. It is always eye-opening reading. This year, McKinsey \u201ccollected information from 333 participating organizations employing more than 12 million people, surveyed more than 40,000 employees, and conducted interviews with women of diverse identities\u00a0–\u00a0including women of color,\u00a0LGBTQ+ women, and women with disabilities –\u00a0to get an intersectional look at biases and barriers.\u201d That little note in the top right corner makes me sad \u2013 \u201cParity 50\u201d. Like we all actually need to be told<\/strong> that to have equality, women would need to make up 50% of those graphs. That fact \u2013 that parity = 50 \u2013 isn\u2019t even an axiom we all already know. On a personal note, I can attest that over 25% of the female executives that I have coached have left their current role after having coaching. The goal of the coaching has never been to leave their company [in fact, quite the opposite], but through coaching these incredible women have realized that they are significantly undervalued in their companies, and choose to go elsewhere. My sample size is not as large as McKinsey\u2019s, but the action is the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even more shocking was seeing\u00a0The Zero Report<\/a>. In only one year, women\u2019s representation in Pipeline to Senior Management roles has dropped\u00a012%<\/strong>. 12%!! This is such a clear sign that this is not an individual problem, but truly a systemic one. A decline of 12% has nothing to do with women needing to be more confident or lean in more. It has everything to do with a system that is not set up for women to succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WHAT THIS MEANS…<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n March 14th<\/sup> was Equal Pay Day<\/a>. Equal Pay Day \u201crepresents how far into the year women have had to work to catch up to what their male colleagues earned the previous year. In other words, women have to work nearly 15 months to earn what men make in 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women aren\u2019t advancing at the same rate as men. Women aren\u2019t paid the same for the same work as men. And female business founders also receive only 2%<\/strong> of venture capital funds<\/a>. As Cherie Blair so succinctly put it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c2% is not a strategy, 2% is an accounting error. That\u2019s just a mistake. Somehow, somehow or other, 2% got through. And yet the people who give venture capital are supposed to be the most sophisticated investors in the world. If they really read and understood the research, they should be giving 50% to women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This quote was taken from the absolutely brilliant Story of Woman podcast<\/a>, in an episode where Cherie Blair and Hillary Rodham Clinton (who are friends in real life!) discuss how beneficial it is for everyone<\/strong> \u2013 men included!! \u2013 when women have equal rights and power to men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WHERE WE NEED TO GO…<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a few common themes in terms of taking action to address and redress this situation. One of them is that women need to stop being asked and expected to take on the (almost always) unpaid and unappreciated non-promotable tasks at work. Things like organizing the office party, or even many DEI topics. What gets paid for gets noticed. What gets noticed gets appreciated. And what gets appreciated advances your career. A good listen on this topic is The Long and the Short of It\u2019s podcast on \u201cThe No Club: Putting a Stop to Women\u2019s Dead-End Work<\/a>.\u201d WOMEN’S FINANCES…<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Statistics Canada,\u00a0women have 18% less retirement income<\/a>\u00a0than men. That\u2019s almost 1\/5th<\/sup>\u00a0less!! And given that women statistically live at least 5 years longer than men, this means they have to make that smaller sum work for them for even longer. HOW TO BE AN ALLY…<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I am so curious to know how many male readers of this newsletter have actually read this far? And what your thoughts are if you have? And my friend Julie made an incredibly powerful, impactful and real video on\u00a0Not All Men \u2013 This Ends Now<\/a>\u00a0that I urge everyone to watch!<\/p>\n\n\n\n READ THESE!<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Last but not least, if you want to dig a little deeper into this topic, I can highly recommend these two books. Both are incredibly informative and excellent sources of research and fact-based data on the topic of women\u2019s inequality:
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Despite \u201cknowing\u201d that there is a disparity in the workforce for women – that women are not achieving the level of leadership that men are – it\u2019s one thing to \u201cknow\u201d it, and another to have it smack you in the face. This Infographic is pretty telling:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/MCKINSEY.png\")
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\u201cWomen leaders are just as ambitious as men, but at many companies, they face headwinds that signal it will be harder to advance. They\u2019re more likely to experience belittling microaggressions, such as having their judgment questioned or being mistaken for someone more junior. They\u2019re doing more to support employee well-being and foster inclusion, but this critical work is spreading them thin and going mostly unrewarded. And finally, it\u2019s increasingly important to women leaders that they work for companies that prioritize flexibility, employee well-being, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
If companies don\u2019t take action, they risk losing not only their current women leaders but also the next generation of women leaders. Young women are even more ambitious and place a higher premium on working in an equitable, supportive, and inclusive workplace. They\u2019re watching senior women leave for better opportunities, and they\u2019re prepared to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/THE-ZERO-REPORT-1024x1024.jpg\")
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Another theme is to stop telling women to be more like men to get ahead. It doesn\u2019t work. One oft-touted trope is that women should be more confident. First off, confidence is actually a feeling \u2013 not an action. And secondly, \u201cWhile confidence is an ostensibly gender-neutral concept, our research found that confidence is not just\u00a0gendered<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 it\u2019s weaponized against women. When women fail to achieve career goals, leaders are prone to attribute it to a lack of self-confidence. And when women demonstrate high levels of confidence through behaviors, such as being extroverted or assertive, they risk overdoing it and, ironically, being perceived as lacking confidence.\u201d
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This article in the\u00a0Harvard Business Review<\/a>\u00a0spells out just how harmful this \u201cbe more confident\u201d trope is, and how it has been weaponized against women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Just this morning as I was writing this newsletter, a friend sent me this article on\u00a0Financial self-reliance: The 5 most common mistakes women make<\/a>. The article is in German, but the concepts are relevant to all.
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The five most common mistakes are:
1. Looking for the mistake in oneself
2. Giving the subject of money a wide berth
3. Submitting to the circumstances
4. Starting to invest too late
5. No separation of money and love
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Perhaps by knowing about, and therefore avoiding these five mistakes, maybe more women will have parity in their retirement income!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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In order for women to have even a chance of achieving parity, we need male allies. The system is not going to change without them. How can you, as a man, be an ally to women? There were some really practical and easily applicable ideas recently for International Women\u2019s Day, including this list of\u00a010 things you could be doing as a man<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Invisible Women<\/a>\u00a0by Caroline Criado Perez.
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There is also a magnificent podcast by the author on this topic that I highly recommend:
Visible Women podcast<\/a>
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The Authority Gap<\/a>\u00a0by Mary Ann Sieghart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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