Carrie Rosingana, CEO of Capital Area Michigan Works!, speaks with Chris Holman about the importance for employers and the community to address the unique barriers women face in the workplace, how the pandemic has impacted women in the workforce, and what businesses can do to encourage and support working women.
Watch the full interview with Carrie now!
TRANSCRIPT
QUESTION: Why is it important for employers and our community to address the unique barriers women in the workforce face?
ANSWER: We need to take a critical look at where we — women — are right now, at this moment in history. It’s no doubt our country and region made significant progress increasing access to education and well-paying jobs for women in recent years. However, there is still so much further to go. According to the 2020 Women in the Workplace report, since 2015, we’ve seen only modest signs of progress in the representation of women in the corporate pipeline. For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 85 women were promoted. As a result, women remained significantly outnumbered in entry-level management at the beginning of 2020—they held just 38 percent of manager-level positions, while men held 62 percent. Gender inequality exists in our country and our region — and we, as leaders in the community, should be taking intentional steps to understand how women are affected and what we can do to eliminate barriers.
QUESTION: How has the COVID-19 pandemic specifically impacted women in the workforce?
ANSWER: The COVID-19 pandemic has the power to undo decades of work and progress toward gender equality in the workforce. According to that same report, one in four women are considering downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce due to COVID-19. Taking that one step further — what many are failing to acknowledge is that the women losing their jobs are primarily women of color. It’s essential to recognize all women are not experiencing the same impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. The biggest factors, according to the Women in the Workplace report, leading to an employee’s decision to downshift or leave the workforce include:
● Lack of flexibility at work.
● Feeling like they need to be available to work at all hours.
● Housework and caregiving burdens due to COVID-19.
● Worry that their performance is being negatively judged because of caregiving responsibilities during the pandemic.
● Feeling unable to bring their whole self to work. Experts estimate we may truly not be able to truly measure the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s finances and livelihood for at least another year — but what we do know is that women are struggling. Struggling to make ends meet and find a balance between taking care of their families and their job.
● Lack of flexibility at work.
● Feeling like they need to be available to work at all hours.
● Housework and caregiving burdens due to COVID-19.
● Worry that their performance is being negatively judged because of caregiving responsibilities during the pandemic.
● Feeling unable to bring their whole self to work. Experts estimate we may truly not be able to truly measure the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s finances and livelihood for at least another year — but what we do know is that women are struggling. Struggling to make ends meet and find a balance between taking care of their families and their job.
QUESTION: How can businesses and leaders in our region encourage and support working women?
ANSWER: Start by looking inward at your processes and expectations. Have they changed at all since the pandemic hit? And have you communicated this to your employees? Managing expectations on productivity and workload can help employees “turn off” at the end of the day and on weekends. Setting and then reinforcing the expectation that they don’t always have to be available in a remote setting will encourage workers to take intentional breaks and times for rest. Consider also supporting your employees with one of the biggest stressors — money. Can you support your employees by adjusting paid leave policies, reimbursing childcare costs or encouraging the utilization of a Flexible Spending Arrangement or Health Savings Account? If so, send them a reminder email on policy updates and reimbursement options so they’ll be sure to take advantage of them. And perhaps most importantly, check in on your employees. According to the same report, “Black women are less likely than women overall to report that their manager has inquired about their workload or taken steps to ensure that their work-life needs are being met, and only about a third say their manager has fostered an inclusive culture on their team.” Simply checking in on your employees — or coworkers! — can make all the difference on their work and life during this difficult time. Checking in on them will give insight to their unique needs based on their situation, and better help you help them. As a leader in the greater Lansing community, I ask my fellow business leaders — of all genders — to show up for women. And at the very least, ask them what they need right now and how you may be able to support them. COVID-19 has been difficult for different reasons for Black women, Latinas, Asian women, LGBTQ+ women and women with disabilities. Ask the women around you what you can do to specifically support them.
