Tuesday’s Big Idea
Today's Big Idea: Rethinking the Workplace
This year, more women than men will graduate from institutions of higher education. Women now constitute about 46% of the workforce and earn 57% of undergraduate degrees. But a recent report showed that female university students in the EU expect to earn less than men once they graduate. And they're right.
Women hold just 15.7% of seats on the boards of U.S.-based Fortune 500 companies, according to Forbes. "We live in a culture where competence and likability have an inverse relationship for a woman,” says Tara Sophia Mohr, who coaches women in executive leadership roles. The gender gap shows up not just in a difference in wages, but in "the way our institutions are structured, the way the workplace is structured. We live in a patriarchal culture. Things are changing, but our workplaces still come from a model that was built for men."
What will it take to rethink our workplaces in a way that embraces and pushes for the contributions of women? Former IOSCO chair Jane Diplock speaks to how we can combat the quiet sexism that is rarely articulated, but often makes itself visible in the form of doubt and disrespect from one's superiors.
Harvard Business School's Rosabeth Moss Kanter argues that if we want more women in leadership positions, we must transform our relationship to work so that women don't feel they need to sacrifice having a family in order to advance their career or to sacrifice their careers in order to have a family.
