One of the quirks of working to build diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace is that we are always tacitly striving to put ourselves out of a job. You know: the hope that we’ll be so good at helping to create belonging that, eventually, there will be no need for our help.
Sadly, that’s not going to happen. At Talking Talent, we have touched hundreds of thousands of lives over the years, but we’re nowhere near being done. And the workplace is ever-changing; there will always be new challenges to face and overcome.
One of the more difficult ‘gut-check’ moments that we experience in our work comes when we take a look at something we’ve been doing for a long time and see how much work there is still to do. The month of March provides just such an opportunity.
March is Women’s History Month in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia (other countries may observe it at other times of the year). And International Women’s Day comes early in the month of March. Both are occasions to look at the incredible and too-often overlooked contribution of women over the centuries – to assess where society has been, as well as where it is and where it needs to go.
In our observation of these important annual events, we at Talking Talent tend to look at things through a professional lens. After all, women’s issues were a founding principal. For almost 20 years, we’ve been helping organizations retain and advance women in the workplace. And in those two decades we’ve seen a lot of big steps forward, but, as stated at the beginning of this article, the work is nowhere near done.
“Many women still can’t imagine themselves in any C-suite roles,” explains Talking Talent Executive Coach Shamela Kylassum.
(The phrase “C-suite” refers to a company’s top management positions, e.g., CEO, CIO, CFO, etc.)
“Part of that is the lack of visible role models,” Shamela says. “Another part of it is that they don’t dare think of themselves in those roles. They feel people will say: ‘Who does she think she is?!'”
Executive Coach Director Claire Jung agrees that lack of role models is a serious issue.
“This is definitely a recurring theme in coaching sessions,” she says. “Particularly for working mothers who often can’t fathom how they can be successful in a C-Suite/senior role AND as a mother.”
This all makes sense. Observation is how most people learn and how they fashion their identities. It can be pretty difficult to picture yourself doing something – especially something really hard, like leading a company – if you’re not able to see someone like yourself doing it. The situation creates a vicious kind of feedback loop: you don’t see a lot of women C-suite executives precisely because you don’t see a lot of women C-suite executives.
It’s clear the feedback loop needs to be broken. Making that happen requires buy-in and understanding from everyone involved – not just the women who want to progress their careers. And that’s why a recent apparent increase in negative attitudes toward women’s issues is exhausting and heartbreaking. Especially since that increase appears to be among young people.
A recent Ipsos UK poll, commissioned by Kings College London, found that 16% of men aged 16-29 felt that “feminism has done more harm than good.” The poll also found that across all ages, a worrying 17% of men said that “efforts to support women’s equality have gone too far.”
Meanwhile, research by Dr. Alice Evans, author of The Great Gender Divergence, has found an increase in ideological polarization among young people in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and South Korea, among others. Men are leaning evermore to the right, whereas women are increasingly and dramatically presenting as more ‘liberal.’ This polarization in thought can lead to social polarization, in which platonic friendships between men and women become less common.
The possible knock-on effect of that is decreased understanding and an increase in resistance to women’s issues. Left unchecked, we could find ourselves returning to the Bad Old Days of rampant and too-easily accepted sexism in the workplace. The UK Parliament’s recent “Sexism in the City” inquiry suggests those attitudes aren’t as ‘long ago and far away’ as most of us would like.
This is why moments like International Women’s Day are important and necessary. Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day provide opportunities to celebrate achievements, promote connection, raise awareness, and issue calls to action. These are vital in keeping momentum and driving women’s issues forward.
The month of March is a time to reflect but also a time to bolster our spirits and rededicate ourselves to building a world where more women can actually see themselves as relevant and important in the workplace – a time to recommit to creating more equitable and inclusive workplaces.
We’ve been doing this work for a long time, but we’re still a long way from being done.
