The alarming effect the pandemic has had on women’s careers cannot be overstated. In 2021, one in three women considered taking a step back in their careers or leaving the workforce entirely last year, according to the 2021 Women in the Workplace report by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org. It’s no surprise given that women have shouldered the mental load and worn far too many hats all at once.
Reshma Saujani, CEO of Marshall Plan for Moms, founder of Girls Who Code, and author of “Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work (and Why It’s Different Than You Think),” is concerned, points out that the Great Resignation is due to a variety of factors. “Some women have reevaluated their priorities and chosen to leave unsatisfying jobs,” she notes. “Some low wage workers are trading up for better hours and better pay. But more often, especially in professions like teaching and nursing, women are leaving because they are burning out. Our workplaces just haven’t been kind to women, and women are done.”
Here, Saujani discusses what’s fueling the problem and what can be done to offer women relief.
Why women are still expected to be primary caregivers in 2022
There’s nothing that makes women more equipped than men to be primary caregivers, points out Saujani. “Yet, women are two thirds of the primary caregivers in this country,” she notes.
The reason: “I believe it’s largely cultural,” says Saujani. “We have deeply ingrained cultural norms in this country when it comes to the gender division of caregiving and unpaid work.”
The issue is reinforced — and exacerbated — by workplaces and government. “For example, when companies do not offer or incentivize parental leave for men, they set up a gender
imbalance from the get go,” notes Saujani. “When our government fails to deliver on paid leave or affordable child care, they make it harder for women to work outside the home.”
In other words, it’s not enough to fix the issue at home. “We have to fix the entire system,” says Saujani.
What fixing the system looks like
“Women have been working in a structure for decades that didn’t account for our needs or the realities of our lives as caregivers,” says Saujani. So it’s no wonder that, two years into the pandemic — which could be seen as the straw that’s broken the camel’s back — we’re at a moment of reckoning, she explains. In turn, it’s time for workplaces to “pay up” by implementing policies that support women.
She encourages employers to root out the pay gap that exists between mothers and fathers and between mothers and women without children. “And when it comes to policies like subsidizing child care and guaranteeing paid leave – whether it’s our employers or the government — it’s time to stop saying it’s too expensive, it’s time to stop saying we can’t or we would but we don’t know how,” notes Saujani. “We pay for what we value in this society — and I believe it’s time to start valuing women, valuing workers and valuing families.”
As for what individuals can do in their own lives to push for these overdue changes?
Spark a conversation
Saujani encourages people to start conversations around “Pay Up”’s core argument that it’s time for the private and public sector to step it up.
“Discuss it at your dinner table with your partner,” she says. “If you’re a CEO, discuss it at your next board meeting.”
And know that there are others out there who are talking about — and fighting for — the same endgame. “We’re building a movement,” says Saujani. “We’re organizing moms, we’re going into companies with advocacy toolkits.”
Reframe what it means to be successful
In her book, Saujani writes about “The Big Lie” — “the idea that if women just try hard enough, raise our hands and put in the hours we can achieve anything men can and more,” she notes.
However, most women will tell you that “having it all” is a euphemism for doing it all, which isn’t bringing anyone happiness, notes Saujani. “Of course we should be able to pursue big careers and big home lives, but something’s gotta give: Our workplaces need to change, our government needs to step up, our partners have to do more,” says Saujani.
And as individuals — and as the “feminst movement” collectively — we have to start viewing progress as more than workplace success, she explains.
Remind your allies that they’re critical
“Men, people without children or caregiving responsibilities: This impact’s you too,” says Saujani. “Everyone has a role to play in transforming our workplaces, our public policies and our culture more broadly.”
In other words, everyone can be knocking on their HR department’s door and demanding policies like child care subsidies, paid sick leave and mental health resources.
What the future of work could look like for women
Saujani says that we often imagine the future of women and work as a “one-way express train to the corner office.” But the future she’s calling for looks different.
“It’s a future where we have the support we need, from our employers, from the government and from our partners, to thrive — not just in our careers but in our lives,” she notes. “Where we have choices, including the ability to exit and re-enter the workforce over the course of our careers without penalty. Where we no longer have to hide our motherhood. We are free from bias and our work as mothers isn’t denigrated or viewed as a distraction but actually lifted up, celebrated and valued. Where our mental health is viewed as just as important as our output.”
It’ll be a future in which we, as a society, stop asking women to do more, she says, and instead, pay up.
