865,000 women left the U.S. workforce in September 2020.¹
This mass departure, or “she-cession” trend continued for months until May 2021 when, finally, gains were made to help reverse this trend. A part of the increases in employment for women are a result of the expanding opportunities being most often in fields, like hospitality, that tend to employ women more often.
As companies continue to rebuild, it’s worth reviewing – what led to the she-cession and how can we make sure that more women continue to find fulfilling employment opportunities?
What Women Want
Let’s explore those questions by digging into what is important to women in the workplace. Here at Talmetrix, we fielded a Diversity & Inclusion Climate survey to assess the current experience in organizations for diverse groups, including women. Our intent was to uncover which systemic items have the biggest impact on the employee experience by analyzing the data via different diversity dimensions and demographics.
Our survey sought to uncover how several factors impact two key business outcomes:
Employee Commitment
An employee’s sense of emotional attachment and willingness to recommend the organization
Employee’s Intent to Stay
An employee’s thought of leaving and action of staying
The survey gathered feedback from respondents from across work industries and represented diversity in race, gender and ethnicity. The findings revealed key discoveries about what an organization can do to ensure that the culture can attract diverse talent, engage, retain and create an inclusive and equitable environment.
For women, the findings were:
Employee Commitment:
The top driver was Connectedness, defined as perceptions of being accepted and being your authentic self at work
Intent to Stay:
The top driver was Discrimination & Harassment, defined as the frequency of discriminating and harassing behaviors at work.
Factors Leading to the Exodus
Tramayne Whitney, Senior Consultant at Talmetrix, notes that working from home caused a disruption and shift in technology which forced people to connect differently. Whitney explains, “It’s just one of the web of trends that are impacting the workplace and causing women to fall out of the labor market rapidly.” Those trends represent a myriad of factors that contribute to women’s participation in the workforce. We explore a few examples here.
Caregiving Crisis
According to Lean In’s Women in the Workplace Report published in September 2020, the pandemic exacerbated the already existing caregiving crisis.² Many day care centers were closed. Schools were shuttered and taken online or had alternate arrangements to reduce the capacity of individuals in the school at one time. Despite educational arrangements, parents had to remain flexible and ready to manage changes at any time in the event that school COVID cases spiked and plans changed.
And with more people at home, even more unpaid childcare and domestic duties were added to women’s lists of to-dos. Mothers are three times as likely as fathers to be responsible for housework,³ so for some mothers, leaving the traditional workforce may be one way to establish some balance.
Layoffs & Furloughs
Not all reasons that women have been leaving the workforce were at-will. Employment actions like reduced hours, permanent layoffs and temporary furloughs impacted more women more than men. In fact women’s employment is 19 percent more at risk than men’s.⁴ With women’s paid labor and women-run businesses being hit hardest, many women headed home without a paycheck.
Choosing to Leave or Downshift
In another example of the COVID-19 pandemic making an existing situation worse, working women continue to face disparity in opportunities, promotion and general development and advancement. As a result, some have decided to “downshift” their careers by reducing their hours or altogether leaving the traditional workforce. As well, women continue to earn 25 percent less than their male counterparts. Staying committed at the same levels can have less and less apparel. This aligns with findings in our recent Diversity & Inclusion Climate survey asked women to report whether they felt excluded from work related to my job, because of my race, gender, age, background, or other characteristic. 60% of women in the survey revealed that they did.
Others choose to leave due to discrimination and harassment. Survey respondents also answered whether they felt excluded from development opportunities, because of my gender, age, background, or other characteristics. 56% of women reported that they did.
Retirement & Rising Home Values
Some women, especially those who are in their 60’s and considered younger Baby Boomers, are choosing to cash out and retire. With the value of homes rising across the U.S., instead of working several more years, some older individuals are choosing to sell their homes – and take advantage of skyrocketing equity – and then retire in less expensive locations, not tethered to employment. Not everyone is flocking to Florida or another southern destination. Many are finding new homes near family members, as spending more time with family and friends has become the leading reason people are choosing to retire.⁵
Self-Employment
Some of the disappearing women leave the workforce, and reappear as entrepreneurs. In their survey of 1,532 parents, Shopify discovered that 62 percent of women with children were interested in supplementing their income. Of those women, 70 percent of them only want to do so on a part-time basis.⁶ Based on the reasons listed in Caregiving Crisis, as well as the discrimination and harassment they may face in the workforce, it’s clear that many mothers are seeking a more emotional wellbeing and work-life balance. Entrepreneurship offers options to make that possible, even if only part-time.
Some Women Even More Likely to Be Impacted…
There is one group that experiences all the negative factors — COVID-19, caregiving, layoffs and furloughs, downshifting and more — at a disproportionate level: Black Women. The situation of the past 18-months has shown even more light on the structural disparities that have existed in the U.S. for centuries. Black women bear the bulk of these challenges.
This impact is deeply felt in the workplace. For example, citing the same statistics from above, when broken down to only black women respondents:
● 75% of Black women felt excluded from work related to my job, because of my race, gender, age, background, or other characteristic
● 76% of Black women reported feeling excluded from development opportunities, because of my gender, age, background, or other characteristics
They are also dealing with the emotional toll of racial violence, while facing more barriers to advancement and being paid less.
What Companies Should Want
As Cathy Englebret, Commissioner of the NBA recognized in her article, “Beyond the Weight Room,” recognizing the value of women in the workplace is about “leadership in the war for talent and… a business imperative.”⁷ Corporate America should want to accept this moment of opportunity to make a new offer to current and future generations of women.
There may be no way to lure back female workers who have fled, but there are some actions that companies can take in an attempt to slow the continuing exodus. Talmetrix’s Whitney sites,
“Companies need to think holistically about a worker and their needs. With women being the largest percentage of the workforce, they are more negatively impacted by change in work. We have to think about what can be done to change that for the future. How to get women reemployed.”
Whitney suggests evaluating business decisions against a model called Work Reimaged where leaders assess factors against a 4-point framework. Read more about reimaging the workplace in Reimagining Work Beyond Return to the Workplace.
Watch Our Webinar on What Makes A Diverse & Inclusive Culture
Learn more! We shared more details on survey findings and spoke with industry leaders to get tips on how to get this right. Check out our webinar available now on our website.
https://f.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/345155/WhatMakesaCultureDiverseandInclusive.mp4
Need support with your DEI initiatives? Contact Us.
¹ Bureau of Labor Statistics. October 1, 2020.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_11062020.htm
² Lean In & McKinsey & Company. Women in the Workplace Report. September 2020.
https://womenintheworkplace.com/
³ Lean In & McKinsey & Company. Women in the Workplace Report. September 2020.
https://womenintheworkplace.com/
⁴ UN Women. COVID-19 and its economic toll on women: The story behind the numbers. September 16, 2020.
⁵ Forbes.com. March 16, 2020. 8 Ways Coronavirus Will Drastically Alter Boomer Retirements.
⁶ Shopify.com. May 9, 2021. The Real Post-Pandemic Boom: Mom Entrepreneurs.
https://www.shopify.com/blog/mom-entrepreneurs
⁷ WNBA.com. April 9, 2021. Beyond the Weight Room.
