Blog: The Great Break Up
The Great Break Up
Please don’t go and we understand why you are!
McKinsey & Company, in partnership with LeanIn.Org, recently released their 8th year of the Women in the Workplace report. This may be the most sobering one yet. Every manager and WOMANager should read this report – several times.
Women leaders are switching, ditching, and leaving their jobs at the highest rates ever seen. And it is happening across generations. We are now in the era of The Great Breakup.
It doesn’t seem to matter which rung of the ladder we are looking at, there is a gap as per the October 2022 report.
For every:
- 100 men who are promoted, only 87 women and 82 women of color, are promoted. This is why The WIT Network created our WOMANagement programming.
- Woman at the Director level being promoted, 2 women Directors are leaving their company. Join us on January 26th for a panel discussing The Great Breakup.
Where have all the role models gone?!
It is time to reconstruct the workplace! The McKinsey organization does extensive research and interviews to ensure an intersectional look at the biases and barriers women are facing. In the report, they hit us over the head with all the reasons why women are leaving!
Companies risk losing not only their current women leaders but also the next generation of women leaders. Our younger women (and younger men, by the way) place higher value on equitable and inclusive workplaces. When they look up and see no or few women in management and leadership, there are no role models for them to be inspired by or aspire to be like. Trust me, we look up!
Early in my career, I worked at a company where the President, VP of Sales, VP of Marketing, VP of MIS and other management roles were all women – over 25 years ago. I didn’t see a glass ceiling. I saw potential. If it wasn’t for those role models – I wouldn’t be where I am today! The gaping hole of women in leadership and the fact that women are leaving leadership positions at alarming rates is so concerning.
Corinne Sharp, Co-Founder The WIT Network
Here is a summary of the top reasons why women are leaving the workplace, based on the McKinsey Women in the Workplace 2022 Report. We encourage you to read it in its entirety and share it with your leadership teams.
- Women still experience microaggressions. Don’t know what these are? Watch the SOAR Above Microaggressions WITx talk with Cherilynn Castleman.
- Women are told they are not qualified for a promotion, yet male candidates more junior get the job. They are leaving now!
- Women are seeking different culture at work. If yours is not it, you will not only potentially lose your only (or one of your only) female leaders, you stand to lose all those who are looking for women in leadership before they join.