A New Standard for Workplace Culture: An Intersectional Approach to Women Thriving at Work
On the iQ team, we research how people experience work to provide leaders and organizations with actionable strategies that can promote positive change. As researchers, we know that the sample size of “people who experience work” is far too broad for meaningful takeaways especially when it comes to strategies aimed at improving the experiences of historically marginalized groups.
That’s why we teamed up with BLK Men in Tech in late 2022 to survey the specific experiences of Black men in the tech industry. And it’s why we are now teaming up with The She-Suite® to better understand the unique and nuanced experiences of women at work.
The She-SuiteOpens in a new tab is a global leadership platform and community focused on redefining modern leadership for working women and accelerating transformation at scale.
The She-Suite focuses on the business case for women, which is that globally, women make up nearly 50% of the human population but control $31 trillion in annual purchasing power and contribute to 37% of the global GD. Over 80% of purchases are made by women. Beyond the right thing to do for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, empowering women in the workplace and the marketplace is pivotal to competitive advantage in any organization and in any industry.
The She-Suite and Workhuman® are collaborating to discover the trends and untapped insights around women’s experiences in the workplace through an intersectional lens. The research explores hidden barriers to career fulfillment along with the importance of recognition and purpose-centered work. Our analysis seeks to help organizations foster cultures where women thrive in their careers and well-being.
The purpose of this piece is a call to action for women reading this or women you know to take our surveyOpens in a new tab to help us better understand the unique challenges at work. It is also to share what we’ve learned thus far and offer recommendations that can be implemented today.
This study will be part of a larger iQ initiative to show how strategic recognition can support and advance historically underrepresented groups at work. And we want to hear from you!
The survey
Women make up 50% of the world. In this research, we want to examine the countless experiences and backgrounds that make up that population to avoid painting a broad brush that fails to capture the essence of the diversity underneath. That deeper, intersectional examination is essential so that our recommendations can benefit all women at work.
Like with our research with BLK Men in Tech, we started by facilitating semi-structured interviews with women in The She-Suite community who had completed the Brand Leadership Institute to help us shape the surveyOpens in a new tab we're sharing broadly.
Our goal is to improve awareness of the women’s experience at work and provide evidence-based recommendations for how to improve the experience of all women at work. These interviews were step one.
What follows are some of the common themes that arose in these conversations as well as actionable areas of focus leaders and organizations can implement today even without the deeper analysis we plan to release in early 2024.
Women are not a monolith
When it comes to the hard work of reshaping the employee experience, there is a tendency, and a dangerous tendency at that, to work with broad groups. It may be easier to group employees by just their gender or race, but it will not lead to successful solutions.
We interviewed 20 women from The She-Suite community each with unique stories, experiences, and backgrounds. There was certainly some overlap, but it was clear to us throughout the interview process that broad-stroke solutions would do little good for this group.
Normally, there are no simple answers or recommendations for organizational change. This is the exception. The work in improving the experience of women at work starts with equipping yourself with the knowledge of what women face at work and how intersectional identities play into their experiences.
In these interviews we found hope. Some women were thriving, some were proactively finding ways to build more community, and some were proud that they were continually bringing more of their authentic selves to work.
However, these interviews were not without troubling and heartbreaking stories. Some women were losing sleep and burning out. One of our interviewees even changed their preferred name because she read that people remember single-syllable names more easily. She thinks her resume got more attention when she did.
Every woman is different. Managers and leaders should make a dedicated effort to develop a relationship and try to understand the person in front of them.
Queen Bee Syndrome
One area of overlap among all our interviewees was either a direct or secondhand experience with Queen Bee Syndrome. First coined in 1973Opens in a new tab, Queen Bee Syndrome is a phenomenon in which a female employee, typically one in a position of power and often in a male-dominated field, distances themselves from and even acts in a hostile, overly critical, or condescending manner toward other women at work.
Queen Bee Syndrome stems from long-standing societal gender stereotypes about the traits needed to be a good leader. Men have monopolized positions of power in every industry therefore, their shared traits have prevailed as the template for a leader. Attributes like assertiveness, competitiveness, and the pursuit of achievement at high cost. Attributes that put us in the position we are in, trying to drastically improve the experience of women at work.
Queen Bee Syndrome has been able to survive by tacit acceptance of or even outright praise for such behavior by men. This intra-gender discrimination is itself a byproduct of gender discrimination women have faced. And it’s made more complex at the intersection of race. “As a Black woman, you have to be smarter and work harder,” said one of the interviewees.
Our interviewees described relationships plagued by mistrust, jealousy, and bully tactics. Said one, “There was a ‘you owe me’ mentality. An expectation that I worship the ground they walk on.” Said another, “I worked for alpha women at the start of my career and learned a lot about what not to do.”
There is no single recommendation for dismantling centuries-old gender inequity. For leaders, specifically male leaders, there needs to be an assessment of whether they are encouraging and rewarding toxic behavior in their culture for men and women.
Again, understanding the experiences of the women in your workplace will help uncover whether your organization is encouraging such a toxic environment to exist.
If you are worried that you’re exhibiting these behaviors, here are some questions to ask yourself: Where is this criticism and conflict coming from? Would I act differently if this person was a man? Am I giving this person a hard time because I think they had it easier than I did?
When our interviewees were asked about their experience with Queen Bee Syndrome, there was a familiar refrain in the answers. “Women need to help women.”
The role of male mentors
Male mentors frequently came up as difference-makers in the careers of the women we interviewed.
These positive experiences included helping interviewees be seen by the right people, showcasing their talents, and even advocating for their promotion. We repeatedly heard about the positive effects of recognition. Not just the act of recognizing women for their efforts and work but making that recognition public for everyone in the organization to see.
In addition to wielding their power to lift these women, one of the consistently successful actions male mentors took was to get to know these women as people. They were interested and honest. Most importantly, they listened.
But just as a mentor should get to know a possible mentee so too should a mentee get to know a possible mentor. One interviewee who spoke highly of a male mentor told us, “I was very intentional about getting to know them as people.”
The presence of a male mentor was not unanimous, however. A few women expressed that they had not had a male mentor at any point in their careers. The absence of such a mentor takes away the possibility of positive redirections in their career and can be the difference between upward mobility and being overlooked.
For men looking to be a mentor, let it be known you’re looking to be one. Be open to women of a different race or identity you’re not as familiar with. Give recognition privately and publicly and be constructive in your criticism. And of course, be an advocate for new opportunities, project assignments, and positions.
Burnout
Another common experience among the women we interviewed was burnout. At work, they find themselves overloaded, exhausted, and neglecting their well-being. With a lack of support, they feel they have no option but to get the work done.
That burnout manifested as insomnia, unhealthy eating, not making time for loved ones, and consistent self-doubt about everything from what they wore to how they carried themselves.
The unfair expectations of women in the workplace are exacerbated by the unfair expectations placed on women in society. Many interviewees had a family that demanded much of their time and energy as well. For some, it was assumed that those responsibilities would be handled without issue.
For a handful of the women we interviewed, relief only came with major life changes like moving, entering therapy, and, when possible, stepping away from work entirely.
But for most, relief came when their manager or mentor was realistic about timelines and deliverables, took time to understand what they needed, saw them for their authentic selves, provided flexibility to handle personal issues when they arose, and actively took work responsibilities off their plate when possible.
Another resounding recommendation from our interviewees, one that could apply to every single theme that arose from our conversations: check in on your people.
Conclusion
We’re conducting this work because research with an intersectional approach to the experience of women at work is severely lacking. As a result, so too are the number of evidence-based solutions for how to improve their experience at work. We detailed a few steps you can take today and plan to come back with far more in the coming months.
Again, we ask you to please take or share the surveyOpens in a new tab so that we can get a fuller view of the intersections in the workplace. These responses will help us identify short-, medium-, and long-term solutions and bring gender equity back to the top of organizational priority lists.
About the author
Julian Wright & Meisha-ann Martin, PhD
Julian Wright is behavioral science researcher and Doctoral Candidate in Psychology at The University of Georgia. As a People Data Analyst at Workhuman, she brings together a passion for cutting-edge analytics and understanding the science behind positive and productive workplace behaviors. In partnership with Workhuman's customers, Julian and Workhuman iQ deliver insights on the impact of social recognition both within and beyond the workplace.
Dr. Meisha-ann Martin is the senior director of people analytics and research at Workhuman. She has a personal passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion and loves using data and analytics to identify and remedy inclusion gaps in the employee experience.
Meisha-ann has a Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology based on her research on diversity attitudes in the workplace and has fifteen years of experience working in people analytics and employee engagement across a variety of different industries.