Huddle Up, Women: We Can’t Let Covid Erase The Gains We’ve Made

The arc of women’s advancement has bent overall towards progress

Thousands of experiences ago when I started my legal career in 1990, you could count on one hand the number of female partners in the firm I could look up to. The playbook to partnership was long, one-dimensional and required the other team’s support. There simply weren’t enough women in positions of power calling the plays.  

That was then. This is now. And in the years in between, I’ve had a unique opportunity to not just see how far professional women have come in the workplace in terms of numbers, but also their impact by assuming higher leadership positions. For the last four years, I’ve been leading an organization that’s been redefining how leading women and men work in ways that are more flexible, collaborative, empathetic and ultimately, more human. In short, I’ve seen not only how the workplace and workforce have been evolving during the past three decades, I’ve particularly seen what these changes have meant for female professionals.

To paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous quote, the arc of women’s advancement has bent overall towards progress—something we can all be proud of. Today, 40 of the Fortune 500 are led by women, a doubling from only a few years ago.  Steady progress is also being made at the board level. According to Women on Boards—a national campaign to advance women to corporate boards of directors—as of late 2020, women held 22.6% of the board seats among the nation’s largest publicly-traded companies, reflecting a 2.2 percentage increase from 20.4% in 2019 and a 6.5% jump compared with four years ago.  

During the past five years, women’s representation in C-Suite and SVP roles has increased to over 20% and nearly one-third respectively. Studies have also shown that businesses with greater executive diversity are more profitable. And it’s not just org chart metrics or bottom-line results. A Harvard Business Review study of 60,000 leaders found that women were overall rated as more effective leaders than men on factors including taking the initiative, agility and inspiring others. 

But that arc has taken a serious bend in the wrong direction these past 12 months with Covid-19’s continuing economic disruption. The virus may not discriminate, but there’s no doubt the last 12 months have taken a disproportionately negative toll on female employees in particular. 

Last December, women accounted for the vast majority of the pandemic-related job losses registering more than one million more lost jobs than men according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Future prospects don’t bode well either. According to a joint McKinsey and LeanIn.org study late last year, one-third of working mothers—a cohort that’s long-faced, work-life blending issues—are now considering reducing their hours or leaving the workforce altogether due to the pandemic. Women in senior-level positions are reporting feeling more exhausted and burned-out than ever compared with male colleagues during the past year.

That said, I’m an optimist by nature and there may be good news ahead. How? We may be arriving at an inflection point that can be a win-win if we recognize the opportunity, and most importantly, if we act—creatively and boldly. This year’s Women’s History Month could be the catalyst. I can think of no better way to honor this annual commemoration than business planning for the post-Covid world with a focus on the one group that’s been disproportionately negatively impacted: women. 

As we begin this month, let’s huddle up and develop a refreshed playbook to stabilize the female flight and build women’s future in the workforce.  In my mind, we start with three commitments:   
 

 

 

Finally, it would be a shame to go back to a reality I well remember where I could count the number of female mentors on one hand. Women have made too much progress over the decades to let a pandemic set us back now. A business should use 2021’s commemoration of Women’s History Month to gain precious ground—not lose it.