How to Create an Inclusive Workplace for Women

When it comes to unfair treatment in the workplace, we often feel the sting of inequality before we recognize its source. 

In a perfect world, everyone would be seen as equal. We’d all have the same opportunities, have keys to the same doors, and have the same rights resting squarely on our shoulders. But this is not the case.

Daily, we play hopscotch in a broken system that requires more than skill and good balance to win the game. 
On the bright side, the workforce is changing, and women have more options when it comes to how they want to build their careers. Sometimes this means stepping outside of the traditional path:

• More women leaders are leaving their companies. (McKinsey, 2022)

• Women are 3% more likely to start a business than men. (John Leanard, 2023)

• Approximately 848 new women-owned businesses open each day (Jonn Leonard, 2023)

• 29% of women are thinking about switching jobs to less demanding ones or leaving the workforce together, compared to 22% of men. (McKinsey & Company, 2023)

The Problem with Creating an Inclusive Workplace

On the surface, it seems like providing a more inclusive environment for women in the workplace is an easy fix. In theory it is, but the layers of dysfunction are so deep and intertwined that breaking them up and rebuilding a new structure takes time — a lot of it. 

How do we know? Because we keep crying out for change from the rooftops but continue to have the same conversations. It turns out that the band-aids of inclusion initiatives in the workplace only covered up much deeper wounds. 

In The Fabric of Belonging: How to Weave an Inclusive Culture by Bain and Trust, the authors point out that, 

Today’s senior leaders have succeeded and risen in existing cultures and systems, and often come from the very majority groups that design and sustain them. While they do often recognize that people from other groups have experiences different from their own, they can struggle with how to respond.

Leaders who are members of majority groups may also gravitate to narrow, behavior-focused solutions such as "acting nicer" or giving employees more opportunities to socialize, or they may rely heavily on team members belonging to underrepresented groups to tell them what they should do — which both increases the burden on those groups and assumes they bring the requisite knowledge of how to advance inclusion.

Just like all other forms of inequality, gender inequality is not a surface problem, so it’s going to take a lot more than surface solutions to fix what’s broken. 

Change (Especially in Corporate Workplaces) is Slow

When it comes to equality in the workplace or anywhere else, change is slow. For example, according to a 2023 Moody's Analytics report, it's estimated that it will take 132 years before the gender pay gap reaches parity at the current rate of progress. 

And, a decade ago, a Harvard Business Review article looked at some of the same issues in the workplace that are still making headlines today:

Many CEOs who make gender diversity a priority — by setting aspirational goals for the proportion of women in leadership roles, insisting on diverse slates of candidates for senior positions, and developing mentoring and training programs — are frustrated. They and their companies spend time, money, and good intentions on efforts to build a more robust pipeline of upwardly mobile women, and then not much happens.

Despite the slow crawl toward a resolution, the equality conversation hasn’t ebbed. If anything, it’s grown, and that’s what matters. 

The Steps We Can Take to Create an Inclusive Workplace

There are a lot of good ideas floating around about the best ways to create inclusive workplace environments for women. Most of them point to increased job flexibility, opportunities for growth, and pay equity. 

I appreciate that many conversations are starting to focus on the underlying structure of an organization and shaking things up.

A paper by the Social Science Research Network looks at the positive impact of women mentoring men in the workplace.

Many articles focus on the need for men to take an active role in using their privilege and position to assist women in breaking these barriers. Although the importance of mentoring women cannot be overstated, and the emphasis on men mentoring women is critical given the gender inequality among senior management, largely absent from the analysis is a discussion of the benefits that women, men, and society as a whole receive when women mentor men."

The article goes on to say that "women mentoring men may be essential for ultimately bridging the divide between the genders and helping to eliminate gender bias in corporate America."

And, according to an article by Entelo, a transparent work environment benefits everyone.

Transparency is one of the chief hallmarks of strong company culture. That means promoting honest, forthright and respectful dialogue at all times. Why does this matter for women? Because authentic transparency is an active bulwark against our most prevalent biases. Even more, it creates accountability and trust that stems from strong communication. That creates resilient, proactive teams capable of addressing complicated situations and dealing with uncertainty.

As an executive coach, I talk a lot about being the change that you want to see and believing in your worth. I've learned through my own personal and professional growth experiences that change doesn't always come as quickly as we'd like, but there's something to be said about how we move along the journey.

Here are a few ways that we can do our part to encourage equality for all women in the workplace.