Women Are Leaving the Workforce. Here’s How Organisations Can Stop It.

On the 8^th of March 1908, women workers in the needle trades marched through New York City to protest sweatshop working conditions in one of the first-ever organised strikes by working women. Beginning in 1910, this date became annually observed as International Women’s Day.

Fast forward 116 years later, are women in the workplace faring much better? Last year, 29% of women considered reducing their hours, taking an easier job, or leaving the workforce altogether.

2023 Nobel Laureate for Economics Claudia Goldin was honoured for her work in helping advance our understanding of the role of women in the labour market. Goldin’s work paints a clear picture that even in 2024, we have some way to go in making the workplace a rewarding and empowering place for women: “if women do not have the same opportunity to participate in the labour market, or they participate on unequal terms, labour and expertise are wasted. It is economically inefficient for jobs not to go to the most qualified person. And if pay differs for performing the same work, women may be disincentivised to work and to have a career.”

This mass departure is even more alarming in the context of the talent shortages and skills gaps already making it harder for organisations to meet their labour needs: research by the Office of National Statistics shows that 58% of adults who left or lost their jobs since the start of the pandemic have no intention of returning to the workforce, and global labour shortages could be responsible for losses of $8.5t by 2030.

What factors are leading to women feeling disillusioned with the workplace, or choosing to leave it entirely? And what might organisations do to put a stop to this?

Why women are leaving the workforce:

• The “Motherhood penalty”: In the UK alone, nearly a quarter of a million mothers with young children have left their jobs because of difficulties with balancing work and childcare. “Many sectors expect employees to be constantly available and flexible in the face of the employers demands,” says Goldin, “because women often take greater responsibility than men for childcare, for example, this makes career progression and earnings increases more difficult.”
• Lack of opportunities for advancement: Women are still not rising up to leadership roles on par with men. A 2023 study of more than 40,000 employees found that women hold 48% of entry level positions but just 28% of SVP positions. The further up the career ladder, the greater the gap of women representation across industries and sectors.
• Frustrations around pay transparency: Despite considerable discussion and publicity around gender pay gaps, they continue to permeate on a global scale: The UK Office National Statistics (ONS) report that median hourly pay for full-time employees was 7% less for women than for men in April 2023. In the US, women are still paid a median hourly wage of just 86 cents for every dollar earned by a man. Black women earn only 68 cents.

How to empower women in your workplace:

• Shift to “total talent:”
  Labour market shifts are leading to an innovative new talent strategy model called “Total Talent”, wherein organisations are expanding their horizons beyond traditional demographic people requirements like education or age, and are instead pursuing progression pathways that are more inclusive for all kinds of people, not just those who come from higher education and can commit to a 9-5, 5 days/week.

   In the total talent model, employers take a less rigid approach to their employees’ careers and provide a greater degree of career support through mentoring and coaching in their people support structures. Such a model facilitates far greater social mobility, and opens the door for a more gender-diverse workforce at your organisation.

• Make space for unconventional ways of working:
  Microsoft research suggests that post-pandemic, the 9-to-5 workday is fading in an age of remote and hybrid work and more flexible hours. Traditionally employees had two productivity peaks in their workday: before lunch and after lunch. But when the pandemic and working from home shifting our working patterns, a third peak emerged for some in the hours just before bedtime in a phenomenon that has been dubbed a “triple peak day.”

   Empathetic organisations are realising that different workers have different needs and challenges, many of which go unseen, and are embracing flexible approaches to working that are attractive for mothers in particular, as parents who tend to their children in the afternoon can make up for that time by working in the evening. Others optimise newfound work-from-anywhere flexibility by varying their hours.

   Your organisation might benefit from allowing a more flexible approach to workplace hours, as accommodations like these ease the pressure on working women at your organisation who may feel forced to choose between motherhood and their career.

• Avoid male default thinking:
  Gender stereotypes and unconscious bias continue to influence hiring, promotion, and performance evaluation processes, hindering women’s progress in unintentional ways.

   Perhaps the most notable example of Male Default Thinking comes from the world of architecture: some 80 years ago, famed architect Le Corbusier devised the “Modulor” system, an anthropometric scale of proportions which continues to be used to establish things like the standard height of elevator buttons and the distance between steps on staircases. It was initially based on the height of a 6-foot man, and disregarded the female half of the population who are, on average, around 5 foot and three inches tall. So, for nearly a century, women have been forced to interact with architecture that isn’t suitably proportioned for them.

   With the benefit of hindsight, Le Corbusier may have avoided Male Default Thinking by accounting for unconscious data biases in his data sampling. Could the same biases be present in your organisation’s designs and data sampling?

Change starts at the top:

In addition to systems and process, line management needs to change to help make workplaces more inclusive and accommodating for women.

Take your line managers on The Expedition. A ready-to-deploy, immersive training experience. Designed by The Smarty Train’s award-winning learning design team, The Expedition includes fundamentals and fresh takes on key skills like self-awareness, goal-setting, and giving and receiving feedback. Unlock your line managers, keep your people.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE EXPEDITION