Women are leaving the corporate world in staggering numbers. In what is a growing trend, ’The Great Breakup’ is leaving a void of female leadership in key positions. Research from LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Company revealed that women leaders have departed their corporate roles at a record rate compared to men. To contextualise the problem, for every woman at the director level who gets promoted, two women directors are choosing to leave their company.In light of these findings, concerns are raised about the effect the trend is having on the fintech and payments industries. Therefore, we will further explore how corporations and business executives can stop, and even reverse, the exodus of women from integral leadership roles.
Overall, women are demanding more from work, and they’re leaving their companies to get it somewhere else. The swathes of female departures from the boardroom have been attributed to workplace issues such as work-life balance problems, microaggressions, and diminished recognition of gender equality efforts. With many slow to adapt or change, companies are struggling to hold onto the relatively few women leaders they have.
At the same time, only 25% of C-suite executives are women, and less than 5% are women of colour. For every 100 men who are promoted from entry-level to managers, only 87 female workers and 82 women of colour receive similar advancement. In fact, the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2022 claims it will take more than a century to achieve global gender parity.
A fundamental way to tackle the ongoing trend of female leadership leaving the workspace is for C-suite administrators to re-evaluate and modify their corporate cultures and procedures to give better support to female employees. Without this, companies run the risk of losing future generations of female leadership.
Moreover, one reason for the imbalance in many industries, including fintech and payments, could be due to the 'coding versus cozy' divide. You can’t make real change without challenging the status quo, and companies need to make valiant efforts to recognise and emphasise the advantage of a diversified team, including female leaders.
Workers and employees of both genders firmly strive for meaningful changes in the workplace but, while men often take a more data-driven approach, women are typically credited with modernising corporate environments through strengthening employee engagement, well-being, and inclusion. Unfortunately, when companies neglect to act upon both sides of the spectrum, women are more motivated to leave their jobs and invest their efforts in areas that satisfy their equal craving to drive meaningful change.
The payments and fintech industry is a fast-paced and innovative space that companies need to work hard to provide the right opportunities for their workers to express their full talent and creativity.
The first step that corporations and executive leadership can take is to be proactive in addressing microaggressions in the workplace. This includes implementing zero-tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, or any other factor. Companies should also provide resources for employees to report such behaviour and institute training for managers and other executives to identify and respond to microaggressions appropriately.
Furthermore, executives should also regularly review their company’s culture and make changes in areas that are not conducive to inclusivity and diversity. Companies must recognise the value of DEI efforts and widen the scope of how they measure net gains.
A recent study published by TechRepublic cites that companies led by female CEOs are found to be more profitable by 20%, on average. In previous decades, competition was less fierce, and employee engagement was less relevant. Today, having the best product or idea without a diverse and inclusive culture contributes to unspoken barriers to success.
It’s critical for women in leadership roles to be able to stay focused and nurture a sense of empathy that can have a transformative impact on businesses globally. At Chargebacks911, we value these characteristics and strive to measure our diversity and inclusion efforts. This have led our company to be included in the top 5% of similar-sized companies in terms of gender equality, according to Comparably.
For more information on Chargebacks911 and what we’re doing to champion diversity, visit www.chargebacks911.com.
Chargebacks911 drives profitability for online merchants by decreasing payment disputes and recovering revenue lost to chargeback fraud. Through a proprietary suite of software and service offerings, the company delivers transparent, end-to-end chargeback management solutions backed by the industry’s only performance-based ROI guarantee.
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