How Long Until the Gender Inequity Vaccine
what on earth
is happening with gender equity in the
workplace
as a result of the pandemic
in 2019 the first case of coronavirus
was identified in wuhan china
less than a year later we have several
vaccines that are around
95 percent effective an astonishing
achievement by any measure right
that within a year of a new virus that
has unleashed a global pandemic
and that required such a complex set of
steps
from research to developing testing and
producing a vaccine
we already are in the middle of the
process of vaccinating millions of
people around the world
in contrast gender inequity in the
workplace a decades-old issue
remains unresolved as if we couldn’t
apply
research-driven solutions to a social
problem
as we do to a public health issue
but make no mistake gender inequity is
not a woman’s
issue just like the covet virus didn’t
just affect a community in a faraway
land
gender inequity infects our culture and
everyone in our society it’s a global
pandemic
and it also needs an urgent vaccine we
were barely making any progress before
covet
and now the latest studies show that
that little progress may be wiped out as
a result of the extraordinary demands
being placed on women
let me give you a list of symptoms
linked to the spreading of the pandemic
of gender inequity
being in charge of everyone all the time
whether they are leaders or individual
contributors and even if some of them
had helped before or if their kids were
in school during work hours
women now have to juggle the blended
environment of remote work from home
having no time to reset or to be alone
as a result of working remotely the
little reset time
we used to have during our commute has
evaporated
and because of new responsibilities most
women have no time for themselves
something that has become quite
alienating
making less so quitting more as women’s
salaries
are historically lower than their male
partners if there’s a household choice
to be made regarding who will give up
their job and take care of the home and
the family
it’s usually the woman who steps back
with withstanding disproportionate
impact
non-white women and women with different
abilities
are being impacted much more than white
women
and are quite often micromanaged by
bosses who are still not ready
to practice remote leadership and
although the new normal
is affecting absolutely everybody we
still see
a larger percentage of female talent
affected
one in three mothers are ready to scale
back or step
out of the workplace altogether 39
percent of senior women
state that they are burnt out compared
to 29 percent of senior men
and 54 percent of senior women confess
to being exhausted
compared to 41 of senior men
but despite the fact that gender
inequity in the workplace is quite dire
there are some great opportunities we
should take advantage of in order to
speed up
a treatment the end of the corner office
this coveted perk to which few women had
access before the pandemic
has been democratized as most key
decisions are now being made
in the kitchen an environment where most
women
play as locals we have already seen how
effective both women and men can be from
the new corner office
a challenging digital and physical space
and that’s why i decided to have this
talk
from my corner office update the
requirements to be an executive
the generalized stay-at-home situation
has affected
everyone from senior executives to
entry-level associates
allowing for a shift in the old belief
that to be an executive
a person had to be physically in the
office and be able to travel a lot
something that often excluded women
leaders have become human having their
own kids
throw a tantrum on camera during
conference calls
has humanized leaders who used to be
perceived as not having to deal with
everyday life issues as everyone else
they have tacitly given permission to
women to openly perform their many roles
including being mothers and caretakers
by removing the stigma leaders have
enabled everyone to share their own
reality
leaders are personally invested in
supporting their teams
as they become more aware of the
circumstances of their various team
members
leaders are customizing their support to
make sure
they don’t lose female and diverse
talent so they are making themselves
much more available to address
individual challenges
and growth potential than they were ever
before
leveling the playing field for all
remote workers
when in the past there was an unwritten
hierarchy that devalued people
calling in in favor of those who worked
at headquarters
now everyone’s in the same boat and
because in the past
women took advantage of the remote work
benefit more often than men
they used to be the ones who suffer most
of the consequences
so what can we do to propel a global
response
when nobody knows what the future holds
at the redshift movement one of the
research and development solutions we’ve
been investing
a lot of time and energy in is fostering
design
for gender inclusion inside
organizations
based on the research of dr iris bonnet
of harvard university
and we have also been implementing some
very successful concrete solutions
let me share three of them taking a
visible stand
for gender inclusion a few years ago we
launched
redshift tuesday an ongoing thriving
initiative
that proposes a day of the week for
people to wear red shoes and accessories
to normalize the conversation on gender
inclusion
and invite people in a fun
non-confrontational way
to come up with concrete ways to
increase female leadership
at the highest levels of organizations
the goal is to aim for a global leap of
consciousness
so that overnight our firms reflect the
makeup of society
we push towards our goal with concrete
ownable actions like that of wearing a
visual reminder every week
listening intently to act fittingly
with our allyship circles we apply a
very specific method
for having courageous conversations
among a diverse group of people
from different backgrounds and
hierarchies in the company so that in
the very
act of having the conversation we’re
leveling the playing field and
everyone feels heard and a vital part of
solving the problem
it’s a way of giving leaders a chance at
empathetic listening
so as a result they can offer tailored
solutions to their team members
remembering that inclusion is not on
pause back in march 2020 when the
pandemic hit
we proactively rolled out inclusion is
not on pause
to put even more focus on the fact that
if we took our eyes
off the ball gender inclusion would
suffer greatly
so we created another set of tactics
individuals and organizations could
implement
like digital backdrops to help people
make a statement during their virtual
calls
they serve as an invitation for anyone
who needs to discuss a particular
situation
to approach those displayed in the
backdrop and we also created snackable
content for everyone to remain
vigilant now i’ve shared here what the
redshield moment is doing
so we can co-create solutions because
unlike with covid
where we got a vaccine in less than a
year of the first case
despite all the research that has been
done for decades
around what works to reach gender equity
in the workplace
the vaccine for gender inequity has not
yet been invented
so we must take a similar collaborative
approach
join our labs and use our data-driven
solutions
to expedite this vaccine to market
i have to leave you now because i have a
group meeting with the gender equity
scientists
who are developing the most promising
vaccines
i will keep you posted on our progress
thank you