This year’s study results usher in a new era of positioning progress and collaboration at the centre of our data analysis. We are also now in a moment post-pandemic where we can assess the challenges that the last two years have posed to DEI agendas and to progress on women’s professional advancement. This year’s results highlight the societal burdens that women still disproportionately carry. The pandemic has certainly shown the domestic pressures placed on women that can have a bearing on women’s ability to reach their professional potential.
It’s as much a challenge of perception as it is reality when it comes to the place of women at work. There needs to be active encouragement as companies fight to position different people in senior leadership roles and diversify the top of the world’s leading companies. Everyone must believe that a new and different looking, sounding or acting figure can occupy senior roles even if we’ve never seen such people do so before. The perils of negative perception are also highlighted in the conversation around pay parity within our study results.
There is much cause for optimism in this year’s results with some momentous shifts forward amongst our respondents’ organisations when it comes to approaches to DEI, flexible working, women occupying the most senior positions and parental leave, in particular as policies at the world’s largest corporations become slowly more progressive and inclusive.
This year’s study positions the opinions and insights of male allies from the industry alongside their female counterparts’ experiences in order to comprehend the role that all of us can play in promoting equality in the workplace. We are keen to create an environment that empowers every person to see they have a role to play in gender equality and to show a way for us all to actively promote progress.
