While mercer reports indicate that 81% of organizations globally say they have been focused on improving D&I, and 50% have set quantitative goals to improve D&I outcomes, those outcomes, when it comes to women participation in the workforce have surely plunged quickly and uncontrollably as a result of the pandemic. 2.3 million women left the workforce between Feb 2020 and Feb 2021 to take care of and to supervise their kids at home creating the biggest She-cession ever seen in our recent times! This crisis has driven women’s participation in the workforce back to 57%, a rate last seen in 1988. This brings me back to my statement “We are in the thick of the “Shecession”, a global emergency Indeed and a call for action”!
Last week, I conducted a LinkedIn poll to hear from you what you think is still holding women back at work and while many believe women’s clarity and confidence in themselves have a lot to do with it, 51% think there is an absence of a support system that mainly impacts that. The absence of a supporting organization, partner, family, and an ecosystem, in general, helps them thrive. As an HR professional myself and a D&I advocate, I feel responsible for influencing that ecosystem (as much as I can) and support women at least in the workplace. In my book Inclusion Starts with U, I speak about family-friendly policies and flex at work as a starting solution for those who haven’t implemented this yet. It would surely help most of the cases but might not solve a she-cession completely. Partners have to surely step up at home to split home care responsibilities and schools have to contribute in their own ways.
What can also be a rescue plan? if we can all name it, we can surely solve it! Let me hear from you!
