Dive Brief:
- Just 25% of women talk with their managers about developing leadership skills, according to a new survey. The joint global survey of 2,200 women between Right Management and Manpower, also revealed that gender parity is 17 years away.
- According to the survey, women are at an acute disadvantage because many work in service-sector jobs, such as office administration, finance and accounting, when lucrative careers are opening in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM.
- Right Management says that employers must start talking with women about exploring development opportunities and new roles to win the “skills revolution.”
Dive Insight:
Preparing women for new roles in new areas requires training. Employees must be ready to invest in the training and development of women so they won’t be left behind in dead-end jobs that will likely become extinct. Purposefully creating those leadership pipelines for women is also key to ensuring they stick around and get promoted at the same rate as men.
The survey prophetically points out that artificial intelligence, robotics and digitization will adversely affect women more than men because of the former’s high numbers in relatively low-paying service-sector jobs.
Women can also prepare to fill the skills gap in high-paying manufacturing jobs. Getting women into better paying jobs, paying them what they’re worth and opening career development and leadership opportunities also could help close the pay gap between women and men.
