Data to the rescue: Investing in (female) employees
Can companies successfully align attention to their bottom line with the current urgent calls for wider diversity and inclusion? The authors argue that thoughtfully collecting data on workplace climate and letting affinity groups address any identified hurdles towards sustainable employment are effective routes to remaining relevant.
Having been writing about issues that inhibit women’s careers, we discussed most recently how unpredictable schedules disproportionately hurt women because they continue to be the main care providers in most families. The absence of workplace policies and provisions that allow women to streamline their home and work responsibilities stands in the way of their upward movement and career sustainability.
Our industry of focus has been the U.S. non-profit regional theater world where only about 27% of leadership is in the hands of women. Our surveys and interviews didn’t merely uncover the hurdle of unpredictable scheduling. We also identified a lack of trust in women’s leadership capabilities and a dearth of mentors who are able to provide women with the needed support. These and other issues turned the U.S. non-profit regional theater — which was started by women — into a field predominantly overseen by men. While our analyses focussed on this one performing arts field, our findings and recommendations are relevant to other
