Ten Years On: An International Women’s Day Reality Check

You might have seen a recent social media trend where people were posting pictures from their lives in 2016 – a time before Trump, Covid and the general “the world is boiling” feel that exists today. If I posted mine, it would be a stream of women’s events – panels, talks and networking drinks designed to help women stay in the workplace and move up to the top. 2016 had strong girlboss energy. Today there are far fewer of those events. It’s as if we think the issue of diversity at work has been sorted, when in fact we’re not much further along, women still talk to me about the same problems as they did back then. So if you’re looking for a way to support your female colleagues this International Women’s Day (8th March), here are some of the things you might want to talk about…

Not being heard

For so long we said the problem was that women didn’t speak up but now they speak up and are spoken over. Research from PWC showed this problem has only increased with remote meetings. So if you want to support your female colleagues, noticing not just who speaks in meetings but who is heard - and making sure to support those who speak up but aren’t listened to - is the place to start.

Dealing with conflict

Whether we like it or not, we still live in a world where young girls are socialised to be polite, kind and deescalate conflict. That means that when they’re faced with someone shouting and stropping in the workplace, it’s often far more uncomfortable for them. Taking the time to design how disagreements are managed and to provide honest feedback to the more conflict-comfortable amongst your team, might not be an obvious way to support women but it’s the thing that makes your culture more conducive to attracting and retaining brilliant talent (regardless of their gender).

What is the point?

Back in my journalism days, I interviewed a head of HR who had just done a big piece of research around why women kept leaving just as they got to director level. The HR team had assumed it would be problems with flexibility or work-life balance, in reality it was because these women had hoped that when they made it to the top, they’d be able to change the business for the better. Instead they were rewarded with more money and a bigger office, nice but not really fulfilling. Women don’t just want power for the sake of power, they want it for the sake of change. If you really want to improve female retention, you need to be open to doing things differently.

I’ve written about women in work for nearly two decades now and the same problems come back time and time again. If the state of the world and recent news tells us anything it’s that the old order doesn’t work, it really is time for change and next month is a chance to signal that. If you’re brave enough…

Interested in having Harriet talk to your business about women and work for IWD?

Get in touch! Harriet@lea-p.com