To really move the needle on workplace equality begins with identifying and understanding the challenges that women face in the world of work.
Deloitte is doing excellent work in this space with their annual Women @ Work survey, an extensive study that examines some of the critical workplace and societal factors that can profoundly impact women’s careers.
They canvassed 5,000 women, working across seven different sectors in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, South Africa, the UK and the US.
The findings are thought provoking and provide valuable insight into the challenges, both in and out of the workplace, faced by the world’s working women today—and how far employers around the world still have to go to create workplaces where women thrive.
It makes for tough reading. However, understanding and amplifying these issues is the shortest route to resolving them. Let’s examine the key insights and Deloitte’s recommendations:
- Women’s stress levels are increasing, mental health stigma persists, and long working hours take a toll
In this year’s survey half of the women described their stress levels as higher than a year ago, and a similar number said they’re concerned or very concerned about their mental health.
Two-thirds of women don’t feel comfortable discussing mental health at work or disclosing mental health as the reason for taking time off.
There are many factors that can contribute to this including workplace culture, being worried about discrimination or being fired, as well as one in 10 women who reported having negative experiences when discussing their mental health at work in the past.
The survey highlighted a clear link between working hours and mental health, with half of women who typically just work their contracted hours describing their mental health as good, but this dropped to 23% for those who regularly work extra hours.
Recommendations
In Deloitte’s recommendations they highlight the need to go beyond just recognising the importance of mental health at work, by understanding what’s driving workplace stress and taking action to mitigate it.
This means not only providing support but also addressing workplace stigma and providing a culture in which women feel able to be open about their own mental health without fear of penalty. It also means identifying the drivers of stress and mental health challenges, such as longer working hours, “always on” cultures, or unclear expectations for hybrid work arrangements, and taking steps to address these problems and their impact on women.
Many women are working through pain
Menstruation, menopause, or fertility were cited as the cause for more than a quarter (27%) of women to experience pain-related issues at work.
More than 40% of women who experienced high levels of pain due to menstruation said they worked through it without taking time off work, similar to 2023.
39% of women who reported experiencing pain or discomfort due to menopause said they worked through it, which is nearly double the percentage of women who said this in 2023.
Despite this increase, fewer women felt comfortable discussing these health challenges with their managers than in 2023, and more say their career has been negatively affected by discussing these matters at work in the past.
Women who have experienced health challenges related to fertility, such as difficulty conceiving, high-risk pregnancy or miscarriage reported similar trends.
Women who live with a partner still bear the most responsibility for childcare and—increasingly—care of other adults
- Half of women living with a partner and have children at home continue to bear the most responsibility for childcare, (a 4% increase from last year).
- 12% said their partner takes the lead
- 26% split childcare responsibilities equally with their partner
Nearly 60% of women who are involved in caring for another adult say they take the greatest responsibility for this, a significant increase from 44% last year. Just 5% say this responsibility falls to their partner, a decrease from last year.
One-fifth of women in this year’s report say they are the primary earner in their household. Of these, nearly half are still responsible for most of the childcare and only 19% of these women say their partners have the most responsibility.
Two in 10 women believe that the lack of affordable childcare might force them to give up their jobs. The women who have already had to make this choice fall outside the radar of this study.
The impact of domestic responsibilities on mental health was also explored. It’s no surprise that the women who carried the greatest share of household responsibility were far less likely to report good mental health than those who didn’t.
Recommendations
Deloitte’s response to these findings focuses on the need for a change to organisational policies so they reflect the importance of women’s health along with the need to create a culture where they can speak openly about their health and, where needed, take time off work for it.
Also organisations should work to normalise the conversation on women’s health, addressing the stigma that remains associated with it and making sure women can access the workplace support they need.
This can be by providing training for leaders, revising policies and processes in order to support women encountering challenges, and fostering a culture where women feel able to be open about their experiences and access the assistance should they require it.
Flexibility and work/life balance are critical for retention
Some of the top reasons to warrant women considering changing jobs or for having already changed roles in the last year included poor work/life balance, and a lack of flexibility in working hours.
Conversely, those who plan to stay with their organisation for five or more years say that the ability to manage work/life balance and the weight of personal responsibilities alongside their career is one of the key reasons for staying.
Despite this, this year’s report shows that fewer women than last year feel supported by their employers to balance their work responsibilities with their commitments outside work.
Nearly all women (95%) feel that requesting or taking advantage of flexible working opportunities would affect their likelihood of promotion, and 93% didn’t think their workload would be adjusted accordingly if they requested flexible work options.
Around three in 10 women who work in a hybrid way are still experiencing exclusion from meetings, a lack of predictability in their working pattern, and a lack of flexibility. And 27% of these women say they are still expected to go into the workplace despite messaging to the contrary.
The same proportion say that because of the hybrid model, they don’t have enough exposure to senior leaders. More than 40% of women in the survey say their employer has recently implemented a return to the office policy, requiring them to be on site either full time or on certain days.
- Nearly four in 10 women, recently asked to return on-site full time, say they have asked their employer to reduce their working hours following the introduction of the policy.
- A quarter said their mental health has been negatively impacted
- A fifth said it has made them less productive
Recommendations
It’s interesting that of all Deloitte’s responses, it’s these findings where they had the most in-depth response to. Considering women are taking on the majority of household responsibilities, there are real and profound effects on their ability to thrive at work and employers have an important role to play here.
They map out the importance of embedding family friendly policies and benefits and to focus on enabling work/life balance.
This starts with policies relating to parental leave and emergency care options that help ease the stress of finding short-term dependent care.
Employers should find ways to enable women to succeed at work alongside their commitments outside work. This also includes flexible working options that work for both the business and its people, alongside enabling leaders and managers to not only understand these options and policies but to encourage and enable their utilisation – without fear of stigma – by those who wish to use them.
It’s also important to understand the impact of return to office policies on women, then take steps to identify and address challenges. While some employers have determined that it is appropriate to implement a return to working in the office policy, it is important to consider whether such policies could have adverse effects for women—for example, in relation to their mental health, their earning power, or their productivity. Employers should evaluate their approach and find a balance that meets business needs without impacting women’s ability to succeed and progress at work.
Women are feeling unsafe in the workplace as well as commuting to and from work, and non-inclusive behaviours continue.
Alarmingly nearly half of all respondents felt concerned about their personal safety in the workplace or while commuting or travelling to or from work. Of these women, one in 10 said they’d been harassed while travelling for work, and about the same number say they have been sexually harassed by a colleague.
The number of women who say they have experienced non-inclusive behaviours such as harassment or microaggressions at work has decreased since last year, but 43% of women still say they have experienced one or more of these behaviours in the past year.
A quarter of women have experienced inappropriate comments or actions from people in senior positions in their organisation. More than a third of the women who have experienced sexual harassment didn’t report it to their organisation, and more than 40% who have experienced microaggressions also chose not to report. The most frequently cited reason for this was thinking that the behaviour wasn’t serious enough to report, apart from 14% of women, who were concerned that the behaviour would get worse, and about one in 10 worried that reporting it would damage their career.
Recommendations
The fact that nearly half of the 5,000 women polled said they don’t feel safe at work is extremely alarming. Deloitte’s response to this was that employers should urgently work to address these concerns. This could mean reinforcing policies and processes that enable women to feel safe at work, or when travelling for work, and that protect their rights even when customers and clients are involved.
Employers should also provide and communicate clear reporting and support routes for those who have concerns about their safety and work to help ensure all employees feel they are part of a work culture where such behaviour is not tolerated.
Gender Equality Leaders are still rare
Deloitte has its own category of organisations they call Gender Equality Leaders, which according to the women surveyed, have created genuinely inclusive cultures that support their careers, promote work/life balance, and foster inclusion.
They also identified a group of “lagging” organisations. The women who work for these businesses indicate that their employers have a less inclusive, low-trust culture that doesn’t adequately support their career progression or work/life balance.
Women who work for a Gender Equality Leader reported higher levels of loyalty towards their employer, higher levels of productivity, and feel more motivated at work. They felt safer, are more comfortable talking about their mental health at work, and more comfortable that they can work flexibly, without it damaging their career.
Women working for these organisations are also significantly more likely to plan to stay with their employer for longer and to see it as somewhere they want to progress: More than 60% of women working for Gender Equality Leaders plan to stay with their employer for more than three years, compared to 41% of the rest of the sample. And 92% of women working for Gender Equality Leaders want to progress to a senior leadership position within their organisation
The proportion of women who work for the Gender Equality Leaders has risen very slightly, from 5% in 2023 to 6% this year (and from 4% in 2021).
In conclusion
Finally, Deloitte’s study concludes by urging more organisations to become a Gender Equality Leader
This was as a result of the significant positive impact when an employer focuses on culture, enables work/life balance, and provides meaningful career development for women.
Women who work for Gender Equality Leaders feel safer, are more comfortable disclosing challenges with their health and well-being, and are significantly more likely to stay with their employer for longer. They are also more likely to want to progress in their careers within their organisations.
Their finishing point is that Gender Equality Leaders are reaping the benefits when it comes to the attraction and retention of women and much can be learned from them.
