The discussion about women and work tends to take the form of a debate about the rights and wrongs of diversity and inclusion efforts, freedom of speech and the perils of positive discrimination. Much of this debate—unhelpfully—pits man against woman. Sometimes it feels like we’re going around in circles and making little progress.
We think it’s time for a new conversation.
We set up She’s Back three years ago because we saw brilliant women dropping out of successful careers in droves. The reasons? An inability to combine work and family life; a culture of presenteeism and long hours; reward systems based on hours worked rather value delivered; and a lack of flexibility and a disregard for someone’s “whole life” experience.
All of the factors that are driving women out are making men pretty miserable, too. For every woman who complains about being unfulfilled and wanting to return to work, there is a man feeling stressed out and longing to step back a little.
So maybe it’s time to ask some different questions. Perhaps by examining what’s going on for women at work, we can find new ways to approach an old dilemma. That way, we can come to solutions that will work for us all.
We’ll explore all these topics in more in Thrive Global’s new special section, “Women in the Workplace.”
For more information, discussion and resources, check out our Facebook group.