Introduction

LeanIn.org and McKinsey have released their fourth Women in the Workplace survey which tracks progress on gender diversity in US companies.  The latest report is based on data from, 279 companies and interviews with more than 64,000 employees.  Since 2015, 462 companies employing almost 20 million people have participated in the study making it, according to McKinsey the largest ever study of its kind.

Overall, the report found that, despite expressions of commitment to gender diversity by many firms, progress towards gender equality has effectively stalled with women (especially women of colour) continuing to be 'vastly underrepresented at every level'.  According to the report, the key cause of this is that current hiring and promotion practices disadvantage female applicants and female employees.

Given this, the report argues that progress on gender equality will only occur if companies treat gender diversity as a business priority and act to change their hiring and promotion practices.  'To achieve equality, companies must turn good intentions into concrete action' the report states.

Some Key Findings

• Since the first year of the study (2015), there has been 'almost no progress in improving women's representation' and women remain underrepresented at every level.  Women of colour are the most underrepresented group. At senior leadership level, women make up 1 in 5 C-suite leaders.  For women of colour, the proportion is less, accounting for only 1 in 25 C-suite leaders.
• Narrowing down the cause of the problem: The report found that the lack of female representation is not attributable to:
  • Attrition as women and men leave companies at similar rates (15% of women and 15% of men left their jobs in the last year).  
  • Lack of ambition: Overall, the survey also found that women ask for promotions and raises as often as men do and the desire for promotion is similar for women and men (71% and 75% respectively).  The survey also found that some groups of women more ambitious than their male counterparts.  For example: Asian women (83%), Black women (80%) and Latinas (76%) were found to be more ambitious than their male counterparts (75%) and slightly more ambitious than white women (68%).  
  • Failure to apply for promotions or to seek pay rises: According to the survey, women are asking for promotions and raises at about the same rates as men. However, women early in their careers are less likely to get promoted, and on average women are paid less than men in similar roles.

• An uneven playing field? According to the survey, women get less day-to-day support and less access to senior leaders, are more likely to deal with harassment and everyday discrimination and often feel the added scrutiny that comes from being the only woman in the room.  For women of colour and lesbian women, the biases and barriers to advancement are amplified.
• Lack of representation is attributable to hiring and promotion practices that disadvantage women (especially early on in the pipeline): Representation of women at every level over the period 2015 to the present was found to be virtually unchanged with improvement at 2% or less at every level.  According to the report, if companies continue to hire and promote women to manager at current rates, the number of women in management will increase by just 1% point over the next ten years. However, were companies to hire women and women at the same rates, (near) gender parity in management (48% women, 52% men) would be reached over the same period.

Concrete actions to drive progress

Treating equality as a business priority: The report calls for companies to treat gender diversity 'like the business priority it is' by: 

• making a strong business case for gender diversity (including calculating the positive impact on business);
• setting targets, communicating them to employees and holding leaders accountable for results; 
• ensuring that hiring and promotions do not discriminate (especially early on in the leadership 'pipeline');
• making senior leaders and managers champions of diversity (and ensuring female employees have access to/are given the support they need from managers to progress);
• fostering an inclusive and respectful culture including (for example: ensuring sexual harassment policies are implemented in practice and addressing 'everyday' discrimination in the workplace); and
• offering employees flexibility and making the experience of being the 'only' woman in the room rare.

[Sources: McKinsey report: Women in the Workplace 2018; McKinsey blog post: Women in the workplace 2018]