Summary

The article discusses the challenges and missteps in corporate gender equality efforts, emphasizing the need for intentional rather than forced policies to foster a truly equal workplace.

Abstract

Investment banking, historically known for gender biases, is striving to reshape its image by implementing gender equality measures. However, the industry often struggles with the execution of these policies, confusing intentional actions with forced measures. While entry-level hiring may present a fair gender representation, the real challenge lies in retaining women in mid and senior-level positions, where their numbers significantly drop. The article argues that genuine gender equality requires more than just hiring women; it involves nurturing and retaining them through flexible, family-friendly policies that accommodate their needs. It cites an example of a woman who was able to continue her career remotely with flexible hours after expressing her desire to spend more time with her family in India, thanks to her boss's proactive approach. The article suggests that true change in gender equality is not just about policy documents but about the earnest efforts of managers and the overall culture of an organization.

Opinions

The author believes that gender equality in the workplace is not a self-solving issue and requires intentional and well-executed policies rather than mere lip service or box-ticking exercises.
There is a critical view of the corporate world's tendency to confuse forced equality measures with those that are thoughtfully implemented.
The author points out that while entry-level hiring may seem equitable, the real test of a company's commitment to gender equality is in its ability to retain and promote women, particularly in leadership roles.
The article emphasizes the importance of managers' roles in creating an inclusive environment, suggesting that their sensitivity and awareness can have a more significant impact than formal HR policies alone.
It is highlighted that women's professional sacrifices for personal and family reasons often lead to their underrepresentation in top corporate positions, a trend that needs to be actively addressed.
The author advocates for a cultural shift within organizations, where gender equality is ingrained in the company's DNA, rather than being superficially applied through occasional initiatives or hires.

Forced vs. Intentional Gender Equality: How Corporates Get It Wrong

Active ways to truly make it an equal workplace

Investment banking is probably one of the most notorious industries when it comes to gender biases. Most trading desks, banking units, and Wall Street in general were for the longest time seen as a boys’ club.

In a world that is increasingly aware of gender gaps and the need to address them, they’re also the ones trying their hardest to change that image.

Talent is scarce, and the battle for young talent — millennials and generations after them — requires checking every box.

Women form about half of the world’s population, and making them feel excluded is not an option.

They’re now also more vocal than ever before and are done being at the receiving end of all sorts of inequalities.

Yet, my observations over my twelve-year corporate career point to the conundrum of right intention, and wrong execution.

Where are corporates getting it wrong?

Gender equality needs to be intentional, not forced

We’re way past the point where gender equality solves for itself, based on pure merit. We’ve been so unfair to women for so long that “we won’t be unfair anymore” won’t cut it.

Reparations are in order.

And these reparations don’t come in the form of handouts — but intentional policies and their careful execution.

Yet, most firms confuse “intentional” with “forced” and end up doing the latter.

Let me elaborate with a few examples.

Hiring vs. Nurturing Talent

The easiest place to implement gender equality is entry-level hiring.

Most companies know this. Typically, when hiring entry-level graduates from college campuses, companies tend to hire equally across genders.

This allows them to solve a simple problem i.e. allowing a fair representation at the absolute start.

However, the start isn’t the problem — as most companies face significant churn at mid-level and senior-level positions.

Life happens.

Women become mothers, and for many, home and family take priority.

Some quit, others get stepped on and left behind by equally, or often less capable men, who have a wife at home sacrificing her career and letting them fully focus their time and attention on the corporate rat race.

McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2023 report numbers tell this sorry story loudly and clearly.

While 48% of the entry-level employees in the corporate world are comprised of women, the number shrunk to 28% at the C-suite level.

C-suite roles are often loosely described and often misleading so looking at the big one — the CEO tells an even sadder story.

Only ~10% of all Fortune 500 companies have women CEOs.

The 48% representation at the entry level quickly dwindled to 10% at the CEO level.

Why?

Hiring the requisite number and percentage of women to fill in vacancies is the easy part.

Retaining them is a big challenge.

My wife and I recently made a big decision to move our lives back to India. We both had mid to senior-level positions at different investment banks in Hong Kong.

I chose to quit and become a stay-at-home dad, while my wife decided to let her intentions known to her boss.

She wanted to be in India, and spend more time with her kids, and in her mind that meant quitting her job too.

Her boss thought differently.

He didn’t even entertain the thought of her having to resign to achieve this balance.

He asked her what she needed. Her answer was a) more time with her kids, and b) a move to India to be closer to family.

Despite most of this being against company policy, her boss jumped through hoops to make it possible. She now has her original job, as a fully remote, flexible-hours arrangement which grants her all her wishes.

My wife didn’t even expect a fraction of this to be possible and wasn’t even going to ask.

In fact, she never asked.

Her boss actively offered it and made it happen.

That is intentional gender equality — doing all you can in order to retain your best talent — especially when it is women who are having to “sacrifice” professional lives for personal lives and family.

The HR policies for most firms read like they’re plagiarized from the same source — it is the execution and the earnest efforts to make things work that are the real clinchers.

What are some concrete steps organizations can take?

Sensitize and mobilize your people managers. Most often, individual employees are dealing with their manager as the single point of contact for all things career.

Company policies, management guidelines, and other details are hardly ever in the picture when dealing with individual situations.

As they say, people leave managers, not jobs.

Similarly, people also tend to stay because of managers and how they’re made to feel at the workplace.

Putting menstruation leave in the policy document doesn’t do as much good as making managers aware of the varied needs of their team does.

Making a bunch of “returning mother” hires is a step that only works if the colleagues and especially managers are able to absorb them in their teams as seamlessly as they would any other hire.

Promoting women to a leadership position only works if it is truly perceived as a rightful and deserved promotion and not secretly gossiped about as a “diversity promotion.”

True and lasting change only occurs if the DNA of an organization is coded with gender equality.

That kind of change takes time, but it starts with intention followed by immaculate and collective execution.