Women’s History Month has been officially recognized in the US since the 1980s as a celebration of the countless women, past and present, who have fought tirelessly and courageously for equality, justice, and opportunity. While initiated over 40 years ago, in recent years, the support and celebration of women has massively regressed and it’s more important now than ever to support women all year long rather than one month of the year. As a female-led agency with a team of over 60% identifying as women, we are passionate about advocating for equality, justice, and opportunity for women. That is why we’re breaking down ways you can honor women beyond Women’s History Month below.*

*Please note when we say female, women, or any other female based gender terminology we are referring to those who identify as a woman.

Give women a platform

It is crucial that women’s voices are heard. Having a diverse team brings a diversity of thought which is essential for modern day companies. McKinsey reported that companies in “the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.” Similarly, Fundera shared that companies with gender-diverse executive teams are 21% more likely to outperform on profitability. Women have unique perspectives that should be welcomed. However, as women, our voices are not heard in the workplace and we often don’t get credit for our ideas. According to a survey by Catalyst, 45% of women business leaders found it difficult to speak up in virtual meetings. A further 1 in 5 women say they’ve felt ignored or overlooked by colleagues during video calls. In addition, research found that women get less credit for their ideas than men.

Women also experience belittling microaggressions such as comments on their appearance, having their judgment questioned, being mistaken for someone more junior, and being asked to bring coffee or prepare the meeting table. McKinsey found LGBTQIA+ women and women with disabilities report experiencing more demeaning microaggressions such as being told they should “smile more” or that they “look mad.” All of which likely makes it difficult for women to confidently speak up in these virtual and office settings.

Women’s voices are instrumental in the success of a company and they should be listened to. Give them a platform and create a space for them to use their voices and feel heard be it through meaningful mentorship, creating workplace allyships, or building a diverse team.

Stop overlooking and undermining female talent

Women are still subject to gender bias and stereotypes in the workplace which often causes roadblocks in their careers. McKinsey found for every 100 men who are promoted from entry-level roles to manager positions, only 87 women are promoted and only 82 women of color are promoted. Further, only 1 in 4 C-suite leaders in corporate America are women, and only 1 in 20 is a woman of color (McKinsey, 2022). Regarding hiring, women are much less likely to get hired for jobs than men, even if they have the same qualifications. This bias goes deeper with Harvard Business School reporting that when a male employer was making the call of who to hire, “women had only a 40 percent chance of getting hired.”

It’s not a surprise that women are paid on average 82% of what men are. It is, however, a surprise that the gender pay gap has remained relatively stable in the US for over 20 years – according to Pew Research Center in 2002 women earned 80% as much as men. Whilst an improvement, this is not nearly as much of a jump as it should be. According to NWBC, women-owned companies employed 10.8 million workers in 2019 and grew their workforce by 28%, more than double that of men-owned firms. The US Census Bureau reported that women-owned businesses reported nearly $1.8 trillion in sales. More recently, Guidant found 60% of women-owned businesses are profitable in 2022. Women are entrepreneurial, excellent business leaders, and should be paid as equally as men.

Leaders, managers, and hiring managers need to take stock of their biases and push for equality in the workplace. Be it through reevaluating their hiring processes, reviewing internal promotion procedures, and closing the gender pay gap within their organizations.

Be purposeful in your mentorship

Mentorship plays a crucial role in female empowerment and advancement in the workplace. Specifically, the NIH says “for women, studies on the outcomes of successful mentoring demonstrate increased retention rates and more success in obtaining promotions and research grants for those who have mentors.” Companies in STEM and Tech industries such as Abbott, HubSpot, and Uber have caught onto the importance of women’s mentorship and have set up their own initiatives to support and mentor female workers.

Whilst someone who identifies as male may never experience what those who identify as women do, it is important that men educate themselves and other men on the realities women face in the workforce. Only then can they be considered to be in a place to be a valuable mentor to their female colleagues; helping them advance in their careers in a meaningful way.

Advocate & support parental leave

When the pandemic hit, a lot of parents left the workforce. In fact, a report by Brookings Institution found more than 1 in 10 mothers of young children left their jobs during the pandemic to care full-time for their children during uncertain times and school closures. Three years later, these numbers have not returned to pre-pandemic numbers. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, men have recovered all the jobs they lost in the pandemic but women are still down 515,000 jobs compared to February 2020. The pandemic intensified caregiving responsibilities for women, making it difficult for them to remain and excel in the workplace.

Of course, childcare and caregiving responsibilities impact men too. Many companies have made strides in improving their parental leave. For example, the job listing website Indeed offers 26 weeks of fully paid leave for all employees, regardless of gender, in the year following the birth, adoption, or placement of a child. Paternity leave is on the rise with Netflix offering employees up to one year of paid parental leave.

If you feel your company doesn’t have gender-neutral parent leave and flexible working arrangements help be that voice and advocate for or support those who are encouraging forward-thinking family leave policy.

How One-to-Woman supports its female workers

At One-to-Woman supporting our female team is crucial to us. Some of the ways we do so include; offering a women’s mentorship program across M&C Saatchi’s US agencies to give women the opportunity to discuss career aspirations, network, support each other, and more. We offer 16 weeks of paid parental leave, menopause leave, and make adjustments to an individual’s working day to ensure we are flexible in and around childcare and any medical needs should they arise.

“M&C Saatchi One-to-One passionately ensures that everyone at all times has the equal right to achieve at the company, and no one is at a disadvantage professionally due to personal life decisions and how they identify in this world. We don’t have all the answers and recognize there is always more that we can be doing. We welcome ideas and insights from the people who make us who we are and will constantly evolve, with a human approach to equal opportunity and inclusion being at the heart of our culture.”

Georgia Graham-Leigh, Managing Director at M&C Saatchi One-to-Woman

Sources

• Brookings Institution, “Ten economic facts on how mothers spend their time”
• Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey”
• Catalyst, “The Impact of Covid-19 on Workplace Inclusion: Survey”
• Fundera, “20 Diversity in the Workplace Statistics to Know”
• Guidant, “2023 Women in Business Trends”
• Harvard Business School, “Why Employers Favor Men”
• McKinsey, “Women in the workplace 2022”
• McKinsey, “Why diversity matters”
• NIH, “Successful mentoring of women”
• NWBC, “2022 Annual Report”
• Pew Research Center, “Gender pay gap in U.S. hasn’t changed much in two decades”
• ScienceDaily, “Women get less credit than men in the workplace”
• US Census Bureau, “Women Business Ownership in America On the Rise”