Media outlets from the Wall Street Journal to USA Today have started another national conversation about gender parity based on the new Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey & Co. and LeanIn.org, and as usual no easy solutions present themselves.
Discussions about the gender gap often revolve around what companies can do to advance women or what women can do to advance themselves. But less attention goes to how women can help each other. Senior businesswomen in particular play a crucial role in creating a better workplace for all women, but in my experience even highly accomplished women rarely provide the kind of informal support that men give each other as a matter of course. There’s no intentional slight; sometimes we just have so much on our plates that it’s hard to imagine adding one more bite.
For my fellow female executives, here are six things you can do to empower the sisterhood.
1.Start high-level conversations. Talk to your CEO and senior executive team about the true ROI of gender-balanced leadership and the message that a homogeneous company may inadvertently send to young talent. Become a cheerleader for women at all levels of your organization.
2.Consider recommending another woman for a board position. Women have made little progress on corporate boards and now occupy just 21 percent of Fortune 500 board seats. Holding a board seat gives you power to create change.
3.Look for a female successor. When you move on to something bigger and better, include a female among your potential successors. Make sure you’re looking at candidates with talent and potential as well as technical qualifications and length of experience.
4.Share quick tips. A client of mine who is also a young mother sometimes has a general question about time management, something I learned the hard way while building a business as a single mother with a young son. A young employee may want a word of advice about how to present herself in high-stakes meetings with senior executives. You don’t always have to invest in a formal mentoring relationship. Even a few moments can leave a lasting impression.
5.Lend a hand to a woman who is stumbling. Maybe a female colleague is struggling to get the floor in a raucous meeting or could use help fending off “manterruptions.” You can help a talented woman get recognition she deserves by saying something as simple as “Courtney has a suggestion” or “I’d like to hear her finish” or “I like the way you built on her idea.”
6.Show respect for the reality that women do bear more of the burden for child care and home responsibilities, even if that respect wasn’t shown to you. It takes just a few moments to conference in a woman who sometimes works from home, or to show compassion for a child care emergency or simply to acknowledge that no one literally works 24/7 – and these small acts of support help women excel.
Women like me fought our way through business environments that often were hostile. Now that we’ve succeeded, it’s up to us to band together for change. With our help, the next generation won’t have to go it alone.