This relates to the loss of talented women leaving the workforce because it no longer supports their biological needs, which could include menstrual health issues, infertility or fertility treatment, pregnancy, and miscarriage, painful or heavy menstrual periods, endometriosis, and menopause.
1 in 5 women suffered unfair treatment due to miscarriage; 81% of women felt less productive due to their period symptoms, and 21% said menopause was a barrier to working.
A woman’s biology impacts how productive she feels, and whether she is fulfilling her full potential. It impacts a woman’s ability to get the best jobs, it reduces her career progression, her earning potential and ability to remain working as longer as male colleagues.
Societal norms around work and care responsibilities re-enforce gender role stereotypes. In the 19th Century roles were viewed as separate spheres – a woman’s place was in the private sphere of family life and the home, whilst a man’s was the public sphere of politics, the economy etc.
The world of work was traditionally designed by men for men, and this was especially seen after the end of World War II. Men returned from military life and workplaces started to model military hierarchical frameworks.
Whilst mechanisms exist to enable women to work longer, this isn’t the reality. Women tend to be the primary caregivers. It is generally accepted that women will put their careers on hold to care for children and when they return, their career prospects are weakened – women continue to provide 23.2 billion hours of caring per year versus 9.7 billion hours for men. Less than 60% of women return to fulltime work after maternity which reduces the roles they can take – most senior and higher paid roles are designed around fulltime working. Despite family-friendly and flexible working policies, many women return to roles below their capability because parttime hours are not available.
Women’s needs from a workplace are different. The ramifications of women removing themselves from the workplace can be huge in productivity losses, loss of talent, removal of mentors for future generations to loss of creativity and innovation.
There are many approaches we can take to ensure that if a woman wishes to work longer, that she can do so. Below are five recommendations that employers can adopt to break the link between career progression / talent retention and the female biological journey:
Open a dialogue.
Talking about the issues facing women will break down the stigma. Consult your staff, ask them what they want or need, do exit interviews to see if they left due to any of these issues. Start to understand the barriers and act on the feedback.
Ensure support is available.
Having a policy to support women through these times and making it available on your intranet, showing women how to access the support they need when they need it.
Build understanding and knowledge.
Training leaders, colleagues, and managers around these issues and how to access support, talk about these issues regularly and openly developing a shared and acceptable language.
Provide workplace adjustments.
Making simple adjustments to when, how and where people work. These changes can be small but will have a big impact on women enabling them to balance her symptoms and her work.
Develop a culture of care.
Make your workplace a safe place to talk about wellbeing so staff feel confident to share their concerns, but most of all listen with empathy and care.
It is important that work works for everyone, but we need to understand that due to the pandemic more women left the workplace than men, and now three years on, fewer women are returning. We need an honest conversation to understand what the barriers are that women face. We need to make small adjustments to how, where and when we work to ensure that everyone can reach their full potential and have fulfilling and productive working lives. When we do this, organisations will develop greater resilience, sustainability, and profitability for longer, and we will all prosper.
