What equity in the workplace means
Between Juneteenth, Pride, breaking news from SCOTUS on Roe, and Ipsos’ involvement in the Cannes Equity Lounge, this past week has been filled with conversations about equity in the workplace and beyond. It’s not enough to be thinking about the voice of the consumer or employee. Companies need to be thinking about the whole person.
What does that mean? Well, diversity is key. Making sure there are policies and a company culture in place to support and actively include different perspectives are both essential ingredients to these bigger goals. And, when it comes to interpreting findings or making decisions, context matters.
In short, as an organization, it’s all about walking the walk. Over the past 24 plus months, social issues have grown even more important as work and life have become intractably linked. Now, with Roe vs. Wade officially overturned there is a whole new dimension to these discussions.
Below we unpack in five points what we’ve learned about women in the workforce:
- Historical March. Taking the long view of things, Americans have become much more open to women holding some of the most powerful positions in the country. This is just one proof point. Attitudes toward gender roles have changed. Most are in favor of equity. But attitudes don’t necessarily translate into action.
- Behavioral Mismatch. Zooming into the day-to-day, there’s still inertia baked into systems that make it hard to breakdown gender inequity. Women cite balancing work and family as one of their biggest challenges. Here there is a say-do gap when it comes to how men and women divide household tasks. While spouses agree on who is providing income for the household, they diverge in who is doing the work of the household: caring for the home and the people in it. Other studies have found that, even in same-sex couples, once children are involved, couples begin to divide work based on who earns more. Structural policies in the workplace can help tilt that balance in a more equitable direction.
- Factoring in the workplace. The workplace has some pull in the structural issues women cite as problems. After salary and wage, women are far more likely to select issues related to flexibility at work, like scheduling and job location, as important factors when looking for a new job. How people interpret these concepts is important.
- Here’s where the rub is. Nuance matters. There is no difference between men and women in how important company culture is when selecting a new job. That changes when you factor in life stage and age. As a company, it’s important to think about culture and policy through an intersectional lens, moving away from thinking just about broad categories, like ‘men’ and ‘women’ but thinking about gender outside of a binary, life stage, race, and the sexuality of people in your workforce. Get specific.
- Roe in context. With the official overturn of Roe vs. Wade today, abortion is no longer a constitutional right. Where does that leave companies? Brands can move on this issue. But these are tough choices. Will companies walk the walk? Public opinion is mixed.
So, what did we learn? Well, America is ready for greater equity in the workplace, but structural inertia still prevails. As such, corporate leadership must be bold in order to ensure that behaviors align with aspirations.
That being said, social change is not always strictly linear—the end of Roe v Wade exemplifies this. Many are turning to companies for action on social issues, putting them in complicated positions when navigating the road ahead. Will companies walk the walk? We will see.
