ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – March is national Women’s History Month—and oh, what a long way we’ve come ladies. One-hundred years ago women won the right to vote and today a woman is vice president. Even though there is a record number of women in Congress this year they make up less than 30 percent of the house, and even less of the Senate. Today there are just 37 female CEOs running America’s highest-grossing companies. Now, experts believe COVID is pushing women and companies into a critical crossroads with gender equality.
Although women are earning college degrees at higher rates than their male counterparts, men are 70 percent more likely to be an executive than women. So, what is holding women back?
The stress of working from home, combined with the challenges of childcare and homeschooling, has one in four women considering downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce entirely.
To retain more women, companies need to take steps to reduce the additional pressures they’re experiencing. Develop a sustainable pace at work, reset norms around flexibility, reassess performance criteria set before the pandemic to make sure those criteria are still attainable.
Also, create open and frequent communication with employees.
Even if all that can be accomplished, the global gender gap report says that based on the latest data, it will take the United States another 207 years to reach gender equality.
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Contributor(s) to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Robert Walko, Videographer; Robert Walko, Editor.
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