#women in the workplace

[coochiequeens]

This is why accurate information about sex and race is important. A study just gave a name to another way businesses pass over women for promotions and how women of color are impacted at greater rates.

Forget The Glass Ceiling, 'The Broken Rung' Is Why Women Are Denied Promotions

A new study finds Black women and Latinas in particular are the least likely to get that first promotion — and it’s not because they’re not asking for it.

by Monica Torres

Getting your first promotion into management is a huge achievement in your career. But a new study from consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and nonprofit Lean In shows it’s an opportunity that is not equally afforded to everyone. 

According to the study, which used pipeline data from 276 companies in the private, public and social sectors, women ― and women of color, in particular ― are the least likely demographic to get promoted from entry-level to first-time manager. 

For every 100 men promoted from entry-level contributor to manager in the survey, only 87 women got promoted. And this gap gets wider for women of color: This year, while 91 white women were promoted to manager for every 100 men, only 89 Asian women, 76 Latinas and 54 Black women would get that same opportunity. 

“As a result of this broken rung, women fall behind and can’t catch up,” the study states.

It’s not because those women were not asking for it ― the study found that the women were asking for promotions at the same rate as their male peers. And it’s not because these women did not stick around long enough to be considered for the job ― the study found that they were no more likely to leave their company than their male peers. 

The main culprit to this “broken rung” in the career ladder? It’s what known as a “performance bias.”

Why women deal with the “broken rung” phenomenon.

Under a performance bias, men get promoted more because of their future potential, while women get judged on their past accomplishments and have their leadership potential doubted.

“Because women early in their careers have shorter track records and similar work experiences relative to their men peers, performance bias can especially disadvantage them at the first promotion to manager,” according to the study. 

This research aligns with the “prove-it-again bias” studies have found women face throughout their career: where they do more work in order to be seen as equally competent to their male peers. 

As for why it’s hardest for women of color to make that first leap into management? Workplace consultant Minda Harts, author of “The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table,” said it’s because systemic biases and stereotypes cause women of color to be less trusted for the job. 

“This lack of trust can manifest in several ways, such as doubts about competence, commitment or ‘fit’ within a leadership role,” Harts told HuffPost. “When senior leadership is predominantly male and white, an unconscious bias might lead them to trust individuals who mirror their own experiences or backgrounds ... As a result, women of color may be disproportionately overlooked for promotions.”

The McKinsey study found that women of color surveyed this year were even less likely to become first-time managers in 2023 than they were in 2022.

Feminist career coach Cynthia Pong told HuffPost it’s because in tough financial times, companies often operate under a scarcity mindset and might see women of color as a bigger “risk” to promote when they are underrepresented in leadership. 

“We just had to go through layoffs, and we only have three [manager roles]. You can easily see how in times like that, it would just end up replicating these systems where we only trust and only give the benefit of the doubt to certain folks,” Pong said. “And it’s not going to be women of color.” 

That sends a dispiriting message to people who watch their peers advance while they get told they are still not ready.

“It’s even more frustrating and infuriating ... when you see that there is a pathway for others, but not for you. Because the injustice of it makes your blood boil,” Pong said.  

This should not be on women and women of color to fix. Employers should proactively take steps to make a clear promotion path for all. 

There is a lot of talk about the “glass ceiling” and the barrier women face that prevents them from becoming executives at the top. But this study illustrates that there is a more fundamental problem happening to women early in their career: the systemic bias that prevents women from being seen as a leader who can manage other people. 

“Our success must be something other than a solo sport,” Harts said. “We can’t promote and advance ourselves.”

For companies to be part of the solution, employers should be more transparent about how managerial promotions happen.

“Trust is enhanced when employees understand what is expected of them and what they can expect from their leaders,” Harts said. “This transparency can help mitigate unconscious biases or misconceptions about capabilities or trustworthiness.”

To break down stereotypes and build trust between employees of color and leadership, Harts also recommended companies to implement programs where women of color are paired with sponsors in senior roles. 

What you can do about this as an employee.

If you keep being told vague “no’s” after every promotion request, start asking more questions about what your peers are doing that you are not.

“They’re not going to admit to having a systemic problem. They’re going to say, ‘We just don’t have it in the budget,’” said Elaine Lou Cartas, a business and career coach for women of color. 

“I’ve seen people that got promoted to this where they are also doing the same amount as I was, but I was doing A, B and C. Help me understand,” is the kind of assertive framing you can use to ask more questions, Cartas said.

And if you find the goalpost of promotion metrics keeps moving after your conversation with your manager, that might be the time to start job hunting. 

“Once you already have that conversation, and nothing’s being done, or at least there’s no steps or actions for it to be done in the future, that’s when [you] could start looking,” Cartas said.

Ultimately, one missed promotion may not seem like a huge setback, but it adds up over time with lost wages and earning potential, Pong said. 

“And then that also ripples out generationally to all the families and family units that each woman of color is supporting, and then those to come,” she said. “So it seems like it might be like no big deal to have this person promoted one or two years later. But ... these things really snowball.”

[dandyads]

U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, 1942

[girlschasinggirls]

does anyone have book recommendations specifically on women during WWI & WWII who entered the workforce while the men were away and also women who worked in the war (whatever their role was) helpful if it includes the 1950s perfect housewife backlash to women wanting to work. and also books about fields that men said women were too unintelligent and inferior to perform well in but once women were allowed to enter them they ended up doing just as well if not better than men? and books about working women in general? non fiction historically correct only. PLEASE ♥️

[businessmemes]

Odors include but are not limited to: long, Eric, 789x, grape, and grape PLUS.

[isaacsapphire]

The PUBLIC space is not "male space". Men's bathrooms and changing rooms are male spaces.

Have you actually looked at how women in the workplace intersected with gendered bathrooms? Like, I've worked at places that only had men's rooms in the last decade and literally had to "invade male space" to work there because I can't not piss for 16 hours, and a lot more that obviously had the women's room added as a remodel.

Also, considering that traditionally single-gender spaces like prisons are a popular TERF complaint (do you give a single shit about prisoner welfare in any other way?) it's disingenuous to pretend that private traditionally single-gender institutions like men's colleges weren't systemically attacked and invaded by women as an essential part of your own movement.

And honestly a little hilarious in the "I never thought leopards would eat MY face" way. Second wave feminism started this, thinking it could dissolve only the boundaries that were economically and socially beneficial to them to remove, and feminists have been crying about eg. liberalized divorce laws allowing their husband to replace them and not pay alimony, or to bill her for child support when she ran off, or "invade female spaces".

You started this, and now you're trying to put the genie back in the bottle and retvn to... Well, that's a good question, especially considering who radical feminism is allied with these days; literally The Patriarchy last time I checked.

[princessbubblegumandjustice]

I love discussing the history of women in the workforce. The braindead alpha cumguzzlers will bend over backwards to convince you that a job actually isn’t work because women did it.

They will throw farmers, business owners, laundromats, cleaning services, restaurants/chefs, child care, teachers/schools, manufacturing, hospitality, and probably a million other occupations and industries under the bus just to “prove” women never actually worked.

[unapologeticallygay]

Blow the whistle on workplace discrimination

Description from JSTOR:

Reminiscent of and repurposing "Men At Work" construction signs, this sticker uses the mustard yellow background, black border, and bold lettering to create a new eye-catching sign. Using the term "butch," this sign announces someone who identifies as lesbian employed at a workplace. However, what makes this sticker important is the invitation to blow the whistle on workplace discrimination. Members of the LGBTQ+ community have a history of being mistreated in workplace environments. Founded in 1973, Lambda Legal, a nonprofit organization that provides legal counsel and resources for members of the LGBTQ+ community, has worked since then to achieve "full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and everyone living with HIV through impact litigation, education, and public policy work" (lambdalegal.org/about-us). The Lambda Legal logo is visible at the bottom of the sticker. Additional text includes: Blow the whistle on workplace discrimination.

Lambda Legal -- Butch At Work. 2019. Courtesy of the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery.

[itellmyselfsecrets]

“Women have always worked. They have worked unpaid, underpaid, underappreciated, and invisibly, but they have always worked. But the modern workplace does not work for women. From its location, to its hours, to its regulatory standards, it has been designed around the lives of men and it is no longer fit for purpose. The world of work needs a wholesale redesign - of its regulations, of its equipment, of its culture - and this redesign must be led by data on female bodies and female lives. We have to start recognising that the work women do is not an added extra, a bonus that we could do without: women's work, paid and unpaid, is the backbone of our society and our economy. It's about time we started valuing it.” - Caroline Criado Perez (Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men)

[msfbgraves]

Power under Patriarchy: Fetishising 'Traditional Womanhood'

Sometimes people are surprised how especially female politicians can pontificate about traditional values while working high profile careers. Do they not see the irony, nay, the hypocrisy of that? Yes, it's a "sacrifice" to "help other women on their way to a better society" but please. If this is really how they wanted to spend their life, wouldn't they be at home caring for people?

Obviously, these women would feel terrible having to practice what they preach, as is so well personified in The Handmaid's Tale's Serena Joy. But why say it?

Simple. They want power, and they don't want to be targeted by the patriarchy.

Of course white college educated women can strive for near any career nowadays, but the penalty is constant sexism, criticism, sometimes even sexual violence. Damn it's relentless and not fun.

Except, there's a loophole.

If you build a business in a female field: childcare, baking, home decoration, housework and cooking they leave you alone. If you teach women to be perfect little homemakers and mothers for the good of all with your new gadget or technique, they leave you alone. If you promise to work for policies that'll get women out of the workforce - or at least into pink collar jobs - they let you get rich. Of course, you need to stay with the programme. You can never present yourself as a businesswoman, and you need to marry and get tf out of public after you've had kids, because that, of course, is what is 'really important'. Only when your kids are well into their teens are you allowed to re-emerge. But so what? By then you're rich. Of course that may not be at all what you want, but when you're 45 and a millionaire, you don't need to let yourself get sexually harassed for 30K a year. If you want to be a politician and you don't want death threats, stand for traditional marriage. So of course Brie Larson's character from Lessons in Chemistry switches from chemist to cooking host. That career is 'allowed', and the harassment will stop. Of course Serena Joy writes books about domestic servitude with a smile. That's allowed, and gives her a platform and influence.

I understand women taking this loophole. Who wants to spend their days battling misogyny? Maybe they're tired and want to build something, anything. But mostly it is the only place where our society accepts powerful women wielding actual power. In a tight little box saying how, say, needlework (and nothing wrong with needlework, that is a true art!) will lead every woman to eternal subservient bliss, just by virtue of it being a task for a true woman. It's always the same bullshit and we keep eating it up! Yes, warm pies are a joy and a clean house a great comfort. But especially when it comes to the women fighting to end abortion and divorce to get re-elected: they don't want an end to divorce and abortion, never did. They want a paycheck, and hope that it is big enough to move abroad when they do end up accidentally founding a theocracy. We could use that energy for a fairer society, but with the choice between a life of pushback, harassment and people stealing your credit or a fat paycheck and people leaving you the hell alone- at least from your mid thirties onwards - can you really blame women for opting out?

[coochiequeens]

Another reason to have more women not just in the workplace but in the leadership roles in the workplace

If you want a fairer pay packet, you have a better chance of getting it with a female manager, according to new research. 

When given the task of deciding how much to compensate employees for a set task, male managers chose to keep more for themselves than their female counterparts, according to the findings of researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. 

“Various studies observe that women make more selfless and moral decisions than men,” political economy researcher and the report’s author, Nora Szech, said on Thursday. “However, we were shocked at how drastic the discrepancy was here.”

The study found that both male and female managers took advantage of opportunities to enrich themselves by paying lower wages, when circumstances allowed this. But women were in general less likely “to be selfish” than men and generally awarded about 13% more than managers on average, the research showed.

“Male managers react stronger to incentives schemes than females. Female managers exhibit a more consistent behavior which seems to be more robust to the opportunity to be selfish,” the study found.

The findings come as European countries tighten quotas for diversity in the boardroom, with the region’s largest economies all introducing some form of mandate to ensure women get at least a third of directorships. The policies target not only inequality within companies, but are intended to boost performance. 

[pedropascalito]

it ain't 2009 guys hating women just because they're friends/close/work/date or whatever with our faves is not cool we know better now

I tried to make sure I was not being defensive because oh my god as a woman of color in a leadership position at a tech company, I am SUPER sensitive to microaggressions against women and women of color and marginalized groups in the workplace. And in education.

I probably failed, but I will always stand up for equity in the workplace. Coco is really good at her job and obviously Pedro values her. I support her, and anyone else he works with.

We have so many people judging us, let’s not do it to each other.

[dandyads]

IBM Typewriter, 1955

Theme Week: Cutting Edge Technology 🤖

[cleofem]

working with men is miserable. i’m not saying women are perfect but damn. 99% of men are so fucking rude, entitled, demanding, impatient, selfish, ungrateful, and just overall lack manners. at the very least i can usually depend on women to say please and thank you.

men just spit out their demands that they want done this second at you - like you’re their fucking alexa or siri, not a human being that has their own time constraints and other responsibilities.

if i could sum up the biggest difference between men and women in one word - EFFORT. women put effort into everything in their lives, while men don’t even pretend to give a fuck.

god i want female separatism so i only have female clients and coworkers and bosses, that’s the dream.

[missamerican-pie]