Are women in the workforce facing extinction?

While women leaders are not (yet) facing extinction, our post-pandemic ranks have shrunk.

According to World Economic Forum data, in general, gender parity in the labor force has been slowly declining since 2009 and was exacerbated by COVID-19.

The reasons are well-documented: Child- and elder-care responsibilities often fall to women. Plus, women’s jobs were two times more vulnerable than men’s to being cut during the pandemic, and jobs aren’t coming back at the rate they were cut.

If Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town” is playing in your head, it’s understandable. Let’s set all the stats aside and attempt to answer the question: How do we turn this around?

I’d like to share some thoughts on improving hiring practices - one of the first areas we can tackle to start shifting the tide:

• Check your job descriptions. Research has shown that women are less likely to apply for a job if the ideal candidate is described in masculine terms. Also, vague job descriptions can discourage women from applying, whereas clear ones encourage them without discouraging men
• Widen your recruitment net. Look for candidates that fall outside of the hiring managers’ or executives’ networks, which tend to be the go-to place to look for applicants.
• Educate your managers. Bring awareness to the leadership team on how gender bias can influence hiring decisions and how to avoid it.
• Change how you present resumes to hiring managers. Think about removing gender references from perspective applicants’ resumes, including names. Hiring managers can select who they will interview based on qualifications and not be susceptible to unconscious bias.
• Don’t limit the number of interviews to a select few. It’s important to have a variety of people, at different levels of the organization, interview candidates and provide input. Include leaders and peers that the candidate may be expected to collaborate with.
• Evaluate all candidates against a set of pre-determined criteria. Rank them against each other in each category.
• Ensure that new hires are properly integrated into the company. Assign an individual or individuals to shepherd the new hire through the first few months at the company, helping them to assimilate and find their voice.
• It’s not going to be easy. Unfortunately, it is going to take time. We may not even reap the benefits of the actions we are taking, but rest assured, our daughters and their daughters will.
  Traci Mercer is a senior vice president at Sabre Corporation and will be a diversity advocate during the Diversity in Leadership program at The Phocuswright Conference.
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