Five reasons to be optimistic on International Women’s Day
by Anna Weltner
International Women’s Day is a time not only for examining the difficulties women face in the workplace, but for celebrating female achievement and resilience. In that spirit, we present five reasons to be optimistic this month about women in the workplace.
It’s hard to strike the right balance when discussing women’s advances in the labor market. On the one hand, it’s important to celebrate our wins: women’s entrepreneurship is increasing across the globe! American women are getting more degrees than men! Who run the world? Girls.
On the other hand, there’s still a lot of work to be done, and this is no time to become complacent or assume that equality has been reached. Gender pay discrimination is still a major issue. In families, domestic labor still falls primarily on women, even as more of them become breadwinners. And this doesn’t even address major issues beyond the workplace such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and access to reproductive healthcare.
So as we celebrate women’s achievements, we’re also celebrating their ability to overcome obstacles that shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
It’s in that spirit that we present five motivating statistics about women and work, just in time for International Women’s Day. Bottom line: the workplace needs to be a much more inclusive space, but the findings below show a step in that direction.
- Women are asking for more. Women in the Western workplace are demanding more from their jobs, according to a recent report from McKinsey. Increasingly, women who aren’t promoted or given raises are leaving their jobs and moving on to other opportunities, which McKinsey calls “The Great Breakup.” The reasons behind their choices to leave are hardly cause for celebration: women frequently experience “microaggressions” in the workplace that may keep them from advancing (such as being routinely mistaken for a junior employee, or being disproportionately asked to make hot drinks and do other menial tasks). Women tend to be judged more critically on their appearance at work (the grooming gap), leading some employers to forego promotions to women who don’t “look the part.” The recent trend suggests that more and more women aren’t putting up with the old ways of working; that they know their worth and are prepared to take their skills elsewhere.
- In the US, female workers are increasingly more educated. According to data from Pew Research Center, Women now represent a slim majority of the college-educated workforce in the US (50.7%) after first surpassing men at the end of 2019. Approximately 40 years ago, American women began earning more college degrees than men, yet were still underrepresented in the workplace. Only now is that majority starting to be represented in the world of work.
- Women around the world are starting more businesses. In the US, women started 49% of new businesses in 2021, compared to just 28% in 2019, according to a study by human-resources software Gusto, (cited in a report by the World Economic Forum). In the UK, women are now running 40% of “microbusinesses” (companies with 10 or fewer employees). Female entrepreneurship is also rising in developing nations, according to the World Bank. Globally, however, only one in three businesses has at least one female owner.
- The option to work remotely has made it easier for many marginalized women. We’ve all heard how the rise of remote work (and remote learning) at the onset of the pandemic made life tough for working moms, who were faced with the responsibility of their children’s care and schooling during the workday. But having the option to work remotely has made life better for many women, especially those from marginalized groups, according to the McKinsey’s 2022 “Women in the Workplace” report. Given the option to work remotely, “women experience fewer microaggressions and higher levels of psychological safety,” the report reads. “The decrease in microaggressions is especially pronounced for women of color, LGBTQ+ women, and women with disabilities — groups who typically face more demeaning and othering behavior.” The hybrid working option doesn’t tackle the root problem — that the office needs to be a more inclusive space. But if it makes a marginalized person’s life better, it’s a place to start.
- In the US, breadwinning moms are keeping families afloat. A full 70% of American mothers “can expect to be the primary breadwinner in their household for at least one year,” according to findings from the Council on Contemporary Families, a research organization connected to the University of Texas at Austin. On average, such mothers spend almost six years as the primary earner for their households. These findings totally upend the stereotypical gender norms of the past, in which men more often figured as a household’s main providers. They suggest that American mothers, despite the disadvantages they still face in the workplace, are increasingly responsible for their households — not only as caregivers, but as providers as well.
(If you’re looking for more information on women in specific sectors, the International Women’s Day website has collected a wealth of information and resources on women in tech, women in sport, female creatives, and more.)
Of course, no matter how recent or how accurate the data, it can’t possibly tell the whole story. There are countless women’s stories embedded in these numbers, each with their own unique set of circumstances and challenges. But no matter who you are and where you work, we hope this information serves as motivation to consider what makes a workplace more inclusive overall, and how you can be part of a more equitable future.
