A year or so ago, a woman interested in a job opportunity in my work unit asked my opinion about how women were treated. She was employed in the same company but in a different area, one with better representation of women. She had heard that in my area, which was male dominant, women often struggled and left for an environment in which they felt more comfortable and where they received support, mentorship, and development opportunities to attain higher level positions. How can employers and managers know if they have created a positive work environment for women? And how can women determine this when considering their career trajectories?

TheFour for Womenframework is an evidence-based guide that companies can use to determine the impact of their policies and practices on women (Kleinet al., 2018). The framework consists of the following criteria:

• “Representation: A good employer for women employs a large percentage of women at every level and in every unit of the company.
• Pay: A good employer for women pays its employees at least enough to avoid poverty, pays equally for equal work, and has no gender pay gap.
• Health: A good employer for women supports and protects the health of the women it employs (and the men, too).
• Satisfaction: A good employer for women provides satisfying working conditions for women (and men, too) (p. 9).

The framework helps organizations evaluate and improve their practices to increase job satisfaction and productivity. Let’s examine each area of the framework in further detail.

Representation

Women are underrepresented in the workforce overall and in senior leadership (McKinsey & Company, 2023). Because fewer women are promoted to low- and middle-level managerial roles than men, they have less chance of attaining high level leadership positions. This is known as thebroken rung. Women also leave organizations at higher rates than men due to unconscious gender bias and cultural barriers such as lack of work flexibility and mentorship. The result of this is a failure of organizations to view and resolve issues in different ways—a failure to create and innovate. In contrast, diversity in senior leadership teams in the U.S. and Europe results in innovations that lead to increased financial gains (Rocioet al., 2018).

Pay

Equal pay for equal work became a law in the U.S. in 1963 (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n. d.); however, standards for determining and reporting on equal pay are inconsistent. Gender pay gaps result from discrimination, women stopping out of work, segregation into lower-paid jobs, part-time work, and women holding lower-level positions (KPMG, 2019;Risse, 2019). Women also tend to lack salary negotiation skills. Organizations must examine practices to ensure the same average compensation for women and men; the same salary for doing the same work; and pay above the poverty threshold (Kleinet al., 2018).

Health

Good employers take steps to protect the physical and emotional well-being of all employees through health insurance, flexible work, and family leave as well as minimizing risk, injury, and stress. Stress can result from a hostile work environment, fear of job loss, extended work hours, and dangerous or discriminatory work environments (Gohet al., 2015). Organizational climate impacts job satisfaction and performance. These issues can be addressed with flexible scheduling, support for caregiving, mental health services, and by simply hiring more women to increase sense of belonging (McKinsey & Company, 2023).

Satisfaction

Women’s job satisfaction increases when managers support their career development and are concerned for their well-being (McKinsey & Company, 2023). While attaining equity in terms of numbers—representation or pay—is critical, this must be accompanied by opportunities to participate in decision-making, transparent communication, and openness to new ideas (Rocioet al., 2018). Motivational factors include achievement, recognition, responsibility, work, advancement, and personal growth; factors that cause dissatisfaction include work conditions, worker relations, policies and rules, supervisor quality, and salary (Herzberg, 1964,1969; Herzberg et al., 1959). Good employers need to address both sets of issues.

Moving Forward

TheFour for Womenframework provides organizations with the opportunity to analyze their cultures and identify biases and related practices that devalue women. Resulting improvements will benefit all employees, improve job satisfaction, and increase employee and organizational performance.

Early in my career, a highly respected and effective employee in my organization, a woman who retired before I was hired but whose name was still frequently mentioned and whose impact was felt, shared her experience with me. She said she had had to worker harder and produce more than men simply because she was a woman. She recognized this and accepted it, but also knew that it needed to change. It has changed due to role models like this women who overcame barriers and proved herself; however, much work remains to be done to ensure that women are equal participants in the workplace and rewarded for their contributions.

References

Goh, J., Pfeffer, J. & Zenios, S. A. (2015). The relationship between workplace stressors and mortality and health costs in the United States.Management Science, 62(2), 608–628.https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.2115

Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B. B. (1959).The motivation to work(2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons.

Herzberg, F. (1964). The motivation-hygiene concept and problems of manpower.Personnel Administration, 27, 3–7.

Herzberg, F. (1969). Job enrichment pays off.Harvard Business Review, 47(2), 61–78.https://hbr.org/1969/03/job-enrichment-pays-off

KPMG. (2018, April 26).Ending workforce discrimination against women.https://home.kpmg/au/en/home/insights/2018/04/ending-workforce-discrimination-against-women.html

Klein, K. J., Schwartz, S., & Hunt, S. M. (2018, November 1). Four for women: A framework evaluating companies’ impact on the women they employ.Wharton Social Impact Initiative. University of Pennsylvania.https://esg.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/WSII_FourForWomen_Web_Final.pdf?deliveryName=DM244361

McKinsey & Company. (2023, October 5).Women in the workplace 2023.https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace

Risse, L. (2019). 50 years about Australia’s historic ‘equal pay’ decision, the legacy of ‘women’s work’ remains.The Conversation.https://theconversation.com/50-years-after-equal-pay-the-legacy-of-womens-work-remains-118761

Rocio, L., Voigt, N., Tsusaka, M., Krenta, M., Abouzahr, K. (2018, January 23). How diverse leadership teams boost innovation.BCG.https://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/how-diverse-leadership-teams-boost-innovation

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n. d.).The Equal Pay Act of 1963.https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/epa.cfm