A Story About Gender Inequality in the Workforce That Hurts Everyone
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In this episode:
Today’s topic and episode is blowing my mind. There are pieces of it that tie into every past season of the Career Foresight podcast as well as providing insight for the future of work.
Saying, “I’m excited,” is an understatement.
I’m going back to my podcasting roots on this episode by focusing the discussion on findings from a research article. In this case, it’s an article from the March-April 2020 edition of the Harvard Business Review.
The article is titled, “What’s Really Holding Women Back? It’s Not What Most People Think.”
It was researched and authored by Robin J. Ely, who is the Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the faculty chair of the HBS Gender Initiative, and Irene Padavic, who is the Mildred and Claude Pepper Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Florida State University.
In this episode I share:
What most people (women, men, business leaders and subordinates alike) believe is keeping women from advancing to positions of power
How the research and data on this topic disproves that assumption, and what is really derailing women’s’ career trajectories
Why we need to broaden our views on the issue of workplace equality and check our biases
A Story About Gender Inequality in the Workforce That Hurts Everyone
What most people (women, men, business leaders and subordinates alike) believe is keeping women from advancing to positions of power
I am fascinated by what I read in this article. If you have listened to any of the podcast episodes from season 3 of the Career Foresight podcast, then you know the theme was “A Fresh Story.”
Each episode touched on the idea that we all believe stories about the world and about ourselves that inform how we live, the decisions we make, and how we feel about ourselves, our careers, or relationships in life.
The challenge in “A Fresh Story” was to take a critical look at the stories we believe collectively and individually about work, success, leadership and creativity, to name a few.
Believing narratives (even subconsciously) about how the world works because everyone else does, or because that was what was passed down to you, is not the path to living and engaged, thriving life.
All that to say, the importance of the conversations I had on the podcast last season were underscored as I read this research by Ely & Padavic.
Their research was conducted on a large consulting firm that had hired them to figure out why their female employees weren’t advancing at the firm. Over 18 months, Ely and Padavic interviewed 107 consultants, both men and women, as well as a mix of consultants and partners.
During the interviews, the researchers asked the employees what they believed was at the root of women’s lack of advancement at the firm. Virtually everyone responded with a version of, what Ely and Padavic call the work/family narrative.
I’m sure you’ve heard some variation of this narrative before, it sounds like this: Positions of power and high-level jobs are demanding, require long hours and to be “always on.” Women are innately devoted to their families, which makes it nearly impossible for them to put in those hours, which leads to their career advancement suffering.
However, as the researchers dug deeper and began looking at the data, it became clear this wasn’t the root problem keeping women from advancing.
To be frank, I was so relieved to read that. Initially, when I saw the article title of “What’s Really Holding Women Back?” I rolled my eyes.
Because of my awareness of the impacts of narratives, I am wary about the effects of seeing too many messages that purport the story that women are lagging behind men, or should expect to encounter constant obstacles in their professional journeys.
As a feminist, I deeply crave progress and equality in the workforce. It’s something I fight for, and it’s part of why I own my own business and work as a career coach. But I’m skeptical that the best way to achieve equality is by always drawing attention to the gap.
While gaps motivate some people, most people find them overwhelming and they can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies with negative outcomes. So, the narrative that women will always face a similar struggle with high-level positions highlights a gap that is seemingly impossible to overcome. Because of that, it is a very unhelpful way to view the world.
The researcher’s data at the consulting firm confirmed this. Their belief in the work/family narrative was blinding them from the reality of their problems.
How the research and data on this topic disproves that assumption, and what is really derailing women’s career trajectories
First things first. The work/family narrative does not equate for women without children.
In their interviews, the researchers said that it was common for men to talk about women solely as mothers, as if they couldn’t imagine a scenario in which a woman wouldn’t be, or plan to be a mother. Many seemed to have never considered what might be hindering women without children to advance in their careers.
However, at this particular firm, the promotion record for women without children was the same as women with children. So obviously there was more at play.
Secondly, the work/family narrative does not address fathers and their distress over making family sacrifices for work.
Over and over again in their interviews with employees, men shared stories about their stress trying to balance work and family, and their regret for the times work took priority over their family.
Third, the firm’s leadership had their own biases. When they hired Ely and Padovic, one of the things they wanted them to investigate was why women had a higher turnover rate than men. When the researchers looked into it, they found virtually no difference in the turnover rate for women and men.
It seemed that the company wanted to point to women leaving the workforce as the reason that they were not advancing. But the data didn’t support that.
What the data did support, however, was that women take accommodations, such as family leave, part-time work, less travel, or internal-facing rather than client-facing roles more frequently than men.
Upon doing so, their career trajectories are derailed, and they are often stigmatized for not being as “committed.”
The double edged sword here is that women are encouraged to take these accommodations, while men are typically discouraged from taking them, if they are available for them at all.
Some men interviewed in the research expressed that they had witnessed the impacts of their female colleagues' careers for taking such accommodations, and it made up their minds they wouldn’t take the risks themselves.
So where does this all leave us?
In reading the comments on this article on HBR’s website, I found that many people felt discouraged, and maybe a bit confused, with the researcher’s findings. So I want to slow it down here a bit to make this as clear as possible.
In the case of this particular consulting firm, the researchers found that the root cause of the workplace inequality and turnover problem alike was the company culture of extreme overwork.
They describe the problem facing men in this way:
In a long-hours work culture, men have one primary identity: that of the ideal worker, fully committed and fully available. To fit this image, they must adopt the psychological stance of “my job is all-important.” Non-work identities, no matter how personally meaningful, become contingent and secondary. Naturally, this imperative to be an ideal worker generates internal conflict, especially for parents.
They describe the problem facing women in this way:
Women experience a different psychic tension. According to the work/family narrative and broader cultural notions, their commitment to family is primarily by nature, so their commitment to work has to be secondary. They are expected to embrace an intensive, “my family is all-important” approach to parenting, a stance encouraged by the firm’s readily accessible accommodations. But a family-first stance comes at a significant cost to their careers and flies in the face of their professional ambitions.
When reading both of those problems, it’s obvious that neither women nor men benefit from cultures of overwork.
“And what about the company?” you may be wondering.
Research shows they don’t benefit over the long run, either. Employees get burnt out and leave, their work output decreases, even while spending more time “on the clock,” people become increasingly conflicted and frustrated about sacrificing their family and relationships for work.
When Ely and Padavic presented their findings about overwork being the cause of the consulting firm’s problems, they didn’t want to hear it. Overwork, or as they put it, “overpromising and over delivering” was their business strategy.
The firm’s leadership rejected the findings and maintained that the problem of women not advancing was because women struggled to balance their work and life commitments. They insisted that the only type of solution they would accept, was a solution that specifically targeted women.
This was impossible for Ely and Padovic to do, since the problem was not about women’s ability, skills, talent or otherwise. It was about the company culture and the suffering it was inflicting on both women and men. So basically, they were fired from the job.
Why we need to broaden our views on the issue of workplace equality and check our biases
The information in this article really resonated with me.
I have been really fortunate to experience a lot of things second-hand when it comes to navigating how to balance family and work. The work/family narrative is something that I may have been prone to believe several years ago. But I’ve been lucky enough to meet person after person who blows those stereotypes up that it no longer informs my worldview.
I know several men, both colleagues and career coaching clients of mine who are fathers and prioritize that role in their life.
Some of them have made major career changes and/or sacrifices to put their family before their career. And they are all grateful they did.
I have male clients who aren’t fathers, who have major career aspirations and are still seeking a career change that allows them the time and space to honor their other identities beyond “worker.”
I know so many women-- family, friends, colleagues and clients that span the spectrum of parenthood and work scenarios.
I have female clients that are mothers and are seeking career advancement to make themselves and their kids proud. I have others that don’t have kids and are building careers and businesses that will support themselves and any potential future families for years to come.
I am not a parent myself. But particularly in my career coaching work, I am well aware how much becoming a parent affects people’s views of the world, their work and priorities. While I may not be able to understand that for myself, I have so much appreciation for that reality.
What was clear to me while reading this article, and that I hope made it through clearly to you, is that assuming that the main problem creating continued workplace inequality is just a female issue, is problematic.
While this study was focused on one consulting firm, that was looking into a few specific problems, what they found has widespread implications.
First, common sense, or cultural wisdom is not necessarily true. Nearly everyone at that firm believed the work/family narrative was the reason for women’s lack of advancement. That means no one was challenging it, even though virtually everyone was suffering from one of the actual route causes: overwork.
Secondly, I’d like hope that studies like this can help to shape real progress towards equality by highlighting a solution in which not only women would benefit, but everyone would--men, families and even the business.
It is disheartening that the consulting firm in this study didn’t see it that way, but I hope the findings are appreciated and taken in stride as we all contribute to forming what the future of work looks like.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and what topics would be most beneficial to you during this season. Send me your thoughts, opinions and questions by going to jenniferspoelma.com/contact and sending me a message!
