Workforce Trends for Women Talent Post-COVID

A number of new workforce trends have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our team at SHAMBAUGH Leadership has been working closely with our corporate clients on..

You Have the Power to Create the Future

Organizations across Corporate America espouse having a meritocracy—and in my discussions with many companies and executives, it’s clear they believe that they do. But can a..

Gender Balance ≠ Gender Equity

In my work with organizations across the country, I find there is a common misconception that having a gender-balanced workforce automatically leads to gender equity. The reality is that simply having a balance of men and women within an organization or on a leadership team does not mean that their strengths and skills are being equally utilized.

Harvard Business School discovered this same reality, as described in a recent article in the New York Times titled “Harvard Business School Case Study: Gender Equity.” Despite solid numbers of female students and faculty, Harvard found these women were not performing at a level commensurate with their potential. Female students entered the program with similar test scores and grades as men, but then consistently underperformed their male counterparts in classes where participation accounted for close to 50 percent of their grade. Administrators found that because the women tended to be less assertive in class than the men, professors had an unintentional gender bias that was reflected in the grades. Similarly, these unintentional gender biases had a negative impact on tenure among junior female professors. Students commonly perceived female professors to be less knowledgeable, experienced and authoritative than their male counterparts.

True or False…Men Earn More Money and Promotions Because They Work More Hours Than Women

True…sort of. Several years ago, Mandy O’Neill, then a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University, and Charles O’Reilly, her dissertation advisor, set out to study the career trajectory and income of MBA students. Their findings were fascinating: Four years after graduation, the women were earning at least as much as the men. Yet just four years later (or eight years after graduation), the men were out-earning the women. Even more intriguing was the fact that the only discernible difference was the number of hours the men and women worked. The women were working fewer hours than men on average, even when compared with men who had the same number of children.^_i