I read this article last week and it got me thinking…
We know we have a gender pay gap issue, we know we have fewer women in senior positions and it is easy to imagine the reasons in our mind. More women graduate from University than men, and yet women leave their positions at a far higher rate than men. The attrition rate is 31% v 24% for men, and the more senior, the worse it is. At C-suite level, women leave at 3 times the rate of men.
So what’s really going on? Whether we like it or not, women are feeling completely overwhelmed. We typically take on more of the housework and when we have children we own the lions share of coordinating the kids. Even if the man takes on what appears to be 50/50 on childcare women carry an emotional burden that is biologically just the way we are wired. We operate with hundreds of tabs open in our mind at any one time (I am sure you have all seen the cartoon!) and we don’t switch off.
To-do lists are made up of work tasks with shopping lists and child pick up times thrown in for good measure. Women are 8 times more likely to care for a sick child so if your kid can’t get to school, chances are you are the one at home.
Women feel an expecation in the workplace to perform as a man would which can change the way she sees herself at work too. You may have heard of the ‘motherhood penalty’ the unspoken bias from some leaders employing women who are married or of perceived childbearing age. Then the’motherhood penalty’ hits pay. Typically people are hired with a salary comensurate with their previous salary and experience. If you factor in time out for maternity, the woman is directly at a disadvantage.