{"id":17670,"date":"2019-11-28T15:30:14","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T20:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/unconscious-gender-bias-preventing-women-from-leadership-roles-survey-139526"},"modified":"2019-11-28T15:30:14","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T20:30:14","slug":"unconscious-gender-bias-preventing-women-from-leadership-roles-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2019\/11\/28\/unconscious-gender-bias-preventing-women-from-leadership-roles-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"Unconscious gender bias preventing women from leadership roles: survey"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Alethea Spirdon<\/span> | November 28, 2019<\/p>\n

Nearly two-thirds (62 per cent) of working women believe gender discrimination is the main cause for the lack of female executives, compared to 41 per cent of working men, according to a new study by Randstad Canada.<\/p>\n

The study, which surveyed 2,000 female and male workers to understand why more women aren\u2019t in leadership roles in Canada, found women make up just 19.5 per cent of board members for Canada\u2019s top 500 companies, while only 8.5 per cent of the highest paid positions in Canada\u2019s top listed companies are held by women.<\/p>\n

It also found a majority (71 per cent) of working Canadians believe balanced representation of both genders on a leadership team have a positive impact on a business\u2019 financial success.<\/p>\n

Read: What is the key to boosting gender equality at work?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we look at gender discrimination, 41 per cent of men feel it plays a role, but that is up considerably to 62 per cent of women feeling that way,\u201d says Carolyn Levy, president of Randstad Technologies and the company\u2019s diversity and inclusion ambassador. \u201cSo to that demographic, why aren\u2019t there more women there? Well, there\u2019s a large majority of them feeling there\u2019s a discrimination piece that sits there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifty per cent of female respondents said prioritizing family life keeps women from leadership roles, while 42 per cent of men said the same. Similarly, 26 per cent of women said women don\u2019t take enough risks to advance their career, while only 19 per cent of men agreed.<\/p>\n

All survey respondents agreed family responsibilities are a barrier for women taking on leadership roles because family and home responsibilities often fall on women. When asked if more men taking parental leave would help balance expectations around gender in the home, 62 per cent of women agreed it would help, while 46 per cent of men agreed. Forty-six per cent of women said they believe men taking parental leave would help women advance in their careers, compared with just 38 per cent of men.<\/p>\n

Read: How to bridge the parental leave divide<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

So what role do employers play in supporting parental leave for their male employees? They should be ensuring women and men men are sharing what\u2019s going on, \u201cso people feel like they can show up at work as their real self,\u201d says Levy. \u201cWhen we see this, the reporting around what\u2019s coming up with unconscious bias, or this difference in perception, the more organizations focus on creating that inclusive, safe work environment was where people will show up not only as their real self but feel empowered to be their best selves.\u201d<\/p>\n

In turn, this can pave the way for more men to put their hands up, she says. It\u2019s about employers creating a culture and space that allows a male employee to feel like \u201cI\u2019m excited to go on parental leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read: Editorial: Making space for a room of one\u2019s own<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alethea Spirdon | November 28, 2019 Nearly two-thirds (62 per cent) of working women believe gender discrimination is the main cause for the lack of female executives, compared to 41 per cent of working men, according to a new...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}