ST. LOUIS, Missouri (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Women are more ambitious than ever, yet despite some hard-fought gains, women’s representation in the workplace is not keeping pace. That’s according to the latest Women in the Workplace Report. In fact, women’s representation in the C-suite or people running companies, is the highest it has ever been. Although only 53 of fortune 500 top bosses are women and only eight are women of color. A pew research poll reveals women make just 82 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. For black women, that’s 70 cents. One organization is dedicated to giving women the skills they need to reach their full potential. RUNG for Women.
Rose Wilson, RUNG For Women graduate says, “I was a flight attendant for 20 years.”
When Wilson was grounded because of COVID-19, she didn’t know what to do, but she did know that “The children were breaking glass ceilings and I’m looking at the kids and I’m like, I want to do it, I want to do it. I need to break some glass ceilings,”
But like most people, Rose didn’t know how until she found RUNG for Women.
Leslie Gill, President, RUNG for Women explains, “We’re a career accelerator, and so we are positioned to help women think about the possibilities.”
Leslie Gill is the president of RUNG for Women, a Saint Louis based organization focused on helping women reach their full potential.
Gill says, “We get in our own way; we talk ourselves out of success.”
Women of color are over four times more likely to say that fewer opportunities for advancement is a barrier to their success. That’s why RUNG connects women to careers where women, especially women of color, are under-represented. Kaitlyn Horn, RUNG Graduate, was an accomplished concert pianist with two master’s degrees, but she stopped working to raise her children.
Horn says, “I’d been out of the workforce for so long. I felt really stuck.”
Kaitlyn’s main goal was to make more money to help with family expenses. RUNG helped her get her certificate in cybersecurity.
“They hired me on around 50k a year, which before that I was making under 30k.” Horn says.
As for Rose, her experience in travel made her a perfect candidate in the geospatial field.
Rose says, “A cartographer is a person that will do a chart.”
And now she’s charting a new path for success.
Rose says, “I am the only woman in my department that looks like me. Crack that glass ceiling. Do it.”
RUNG for Women is completely free and has helped over 300 women since it started in 2021. They get their funding through grants and donations. As for the name, RUNG for Women, the glass ceiling describes unseen barriers women tend to face when climbing the corporate ladder. But this organization believes the broken rung is the real danger for women in the workforce because the real trouble that begins long before women are in management roles. They are passed over for promotions at the beginning of their careers. In 2023, for every 100 men to rise from entry-level to manager, just 73 women of color made that leap. The failure to do that, costs women 90 thousand dollars in lifetime earnings.
Sources:
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Roque Correa, Editor, and Videographer
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