On August 4, I was interviewed on Talk Radio WGCH to share my perspective on some of the key national and global changes that women in the workforce are experiencing since founding the leadership training program Women in Leadership and Learning (WILL) two decades ago. A major shift that I highlighted on the show was that at the start of the pandemic in 2020, many women left the workforce due to family constraints and increased childcare responsibilities—it just wasn’t possible to juggle everything.
Yet along with this mass exodus of women, there was also an assumption that women would never return to the workforce. Employers and politicians worried this would directly impact the workforce and the economy as a whole for years to come. But that has not come to pass and that narrative has happily been debunked.
Coming Back with Both Feet
Instead of continued flight out of Corporate America, we’re seeing a resurgence of women going back to their professional roles—in fact, a significant shift. One study from June 2023 showed that women between the ages of 24 and 54 now represent more than three quarters (77.89) percent of employees returning to work. This number represents an all-time high of women rebounding back into the workforce.
Along with that shift, I’ve seen firsthand while working in the arenas of executive coaching, women’s leadership, and organizational leadership that women are not just putting their foot in the door and coming back to work as only their professional themselves. They’re actually now putting their whole selves back into the workplace—coming back in their roles both as a professional leader or executive, and also coming back embracing their personal roles. This might be as a mother who has childcare responsibilities, or someone who takes care of an elderly family member, or an employee who’s passionate about also doing volunteer work in the community.
Wakeup Call to Companies
The fact that women are bringing their whole selves back to work suggests to me that more people now recognize the necessary intersection and interplay between work and life—a union that more and more forward-thinking companies are embracing now as well. I’ve been advising leaders that it’s now more important than ever for organizations to open the door around flexibility. Companies should give women and men alike the opportunity to practice that intersection of their whole lives—blending personal with professional, rather than expecting people to just come to work and identify solely with their business role.
This is a wake-up call for organizations to not just talk about flexibility, but to actually create effective flexible work cultures and policies. Leaders should also hold people accountable for fostering a management culture that supports this flexibility, which begins with communicating and exemplifying a caring culture—caring about the whole lives of their employees, not just their work lives.
As a growing number of women request the ability to manage a flexible work-life in either a remote or hybrid work environment, organizations need to meet these talented employees where they are—and where they want to be—if they hope to retain top talent. While some organizations are insisting that employees return fulltime to their traditional office role, that strategy may be shortsighted. After two years of allowing people to work from home, many employees now appreciate and want to stay home, whether with their children and families or simply to have more personal time and flexibility for other parts of their lives. They want the chance to try to organize themselves to make it work on both ends, as they’ve already proven they can do successfully. That’s why the key to an organization’s future success just may be offering a more flexible workplace.
Next Steps
SHAMBAUGH Leadership is currently taking a deep dive into this critical aspect of women’s leadership, to address the shifts in the workplace for women, increase their engagement, and enhance equitable opportunities. My research team of women’s executive coaching and leadership consultants is conducting a major research study that includes women ranging from early in their careers to more veteran executives across a broad range of functions. Our goal is to learn more about the challenges women are faced with now, their personal gaps around growth and development, what the workplace looks like now, and what it will take to make them really feel valued while having the resources and right management to yield women’s engagement, performance, and desire to stay in the workplace. I’ll announce the results of this study in an upcoming blog post, along with some prescriptive solutions both for women in the workforce and for their managers and organizations.
If you or your team have advice for women in leadership that you’d like to share or questions you’d like to ask about this topic, please reach out to me at info@shambaughleadership.com.
Link to SHAMBAUGH’s offerings on Executive Coaching, Leadership Development, Coaching and Development Programs for Women, Keynotes and Fireside Chats.
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Rebecca Shambaugh is a recognized author and speaker on leadership best practices. She is president of SHAMBAUGH Leadership, founder of Women in Leadership and Learning, and author of the bestselling books It’s Not a Glass Ceiling, It’s a Sticky Floor and Make Room for Her: Why Companies Need an Integrated Leadership Model to Achieve Extraordinary Results.