How do women feel about their career growth?
Progressive workplaces put women at the centre of flexible work programmes. With the pandemic predominantly affecting female talent – edging them out of work in hard-hit sectors – organisations will need to ensure women feel “they belong” and that they have equal opportunities to advance in their career through flexible work, according to Prue Cox, director at LinkedIn Australia.
“COVID has had a disproportionate impact on women’s jobs and their careers. Women have had to take on more – family responsibilities or caring for someone, and are struggling to juggle work and life. This has resulted in a ‘mental load’ that women have had to bear,” Cox told HRD.
Read more: How to create an inclusive workplace
Add to that “mental load” the idea that women tend to feel “less entitled” to growth opportunities. In a new study, LinkedIn Australia learned 68% – or nearly seven in 10 – women surveyed feel “there are scenarios within the workplace where they feel less entitled than men”.
“While confident, ambitious and proud, Australian women have been socially conditioned, over time, to feel less entitled to opportunity,” LinkedIn said. Case in point: how women often feel disadvantaged when they ask for work flexibility. The report found female employees faced “penalties” such as:
- Being seen as less committed (36%)
- Being resented by colleagues/management (32%)
- Feeling like they don’t have the right to ask for a pay rise (30%)
There are also gender differences in how women and men ask for a pay increase and when they feel ready to negotiate for one. “When it comes to pay rises, women on average wait longer (13 months) compared to men (10 months) to ask their employer for a pay rise from the moment they felt they deserved one,” LinkedIn analysts said.
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Even when women are offered a new job, 56% reported they have “never negotiated pay when accepting a role with a new employer”. In contrast, only 32% of men shied away from negotiating.
Resuming work after a parental leave has also resulted in differences in employees’ feelings of entitlement and career expectations. “More than two in five women (44%) surveyed agreed that there has already been a point in their career when they have had to start lowering their career expectations and reassessing the progress they believed was possible,” LinkedIn said.
Women returning to work after maternity leave “faced expectation bias, with lower expectations of a woman’s contributions to the firm, commitment and ability to take on responsibilities and challenges. This is having an impact on women’s career advancement,” Cox said.
