Women and people of color still face workforce inequality, reports show

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) -- Two recently released reports show that women and people of color continue to face workforce inequality.

McKinsey and Company has released its Women in the Workplace 2024: The 10th-anniversary report. The report, created in partnership with LeanIn.org, collected data from 281 organizations that employ over 10 million people and surveyed more than 15,000 workers and 280 HR leaders.

Even though women represent the majority of the population, they are still under-represented in the workplace, from entry-level up to corporate leadership, including positions like CEO.

The data shows that while there has been modest progress over the years, further analysis shows larger divides. For every 100 men who receive a promotion, just 81 women will receive one.

Women represent 48% of the workforce, while men account for 52%. Breaking these figures down by ethnicity and workplace roles highlights notable disparities.

At the entry level, white men hold 33% of positions, men of color 18%, white women 28%, and women of color 19%. In managerial roles, 41% are held by white men, 18% by men of color, 27% by white women, and 13% by women of color.

The gaps become more pronounced at senior levels. White women hold 28% of senior management positions, compared to 15% for men of color and 10% for women of color. At the vice president level, white men occupy 52% of roles, white women 26%, men of color 13%, and women of color 8%.

In the highest leadership roles, such as CEOs, white women hold 22%, men of color 14%, and women of color only 7%.

McKinsey and Company says if the trends continue, it will take 50 years for women to reach gender parity with men in the workforce. In addition to hiring and promotions, women also experience microaggressions in the workplace that their male colleagues often don't face.

These include being questioned more about their competency than male colleagues, questioning their judgment, especially in areas of their expertise, being mistaken for someone in a lower position within the company and being interrupted or spoken over by others. McKinsey and Company says the microaggressions can lead to burnout for these employees and make them consider leaving companies.

The research also shows that four in 10 women, regardless of age, experience inequality in the home regarding household work.

A separate report published last month in the Human Resource Development Quarterly shows that women, even those in major leadership roles, continue to experience bias based on at least 30 factors, including race, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy, and factors that previously may not have been considered like their accents, age, body size, social class, all can keep women from advancing their careers beyond entry-level positions.

The report, titled "Never Quite Right: Identity Factors Contributing to Bias and Discrimination Experienced by Women Leaders in the United States," recommends Human Resource departments work to create policies that allow women to be freer to be themselves in the workplace and train leadership and supervisors to identify criticism that may be used to obscure discrimination, intended or not.

In its report, McKinsey and Company noted that companies can address inequality through changes to their company culture. They recommend adopting the influence model and its four building blocks of change. They include Fostering Understanding and Conviction, Reinforcing with Formal Mechanisms, Developing Talent and Skills, and Role Modeling.

Research shows that by addressing bias in the workplace, companies can better recruit and retain top talent, increasing productivity and company growth.