Columbia Professor Offers Advice on #MeToo Fallout for Female Leadership
The #MeToo movement has been a good thing, bringing to light many gender issues regarding sexual harassment and assault. And, it’s been particularly valuable for women in the workplace.
Unfortunately, while most of the response to the #MeToo movement has been positive, it has triggered a few unexpected negative consequences. As a Forbes article recently explains, there’s a “potential threat to women’s advancement to senior leadership, as some men have become wary of forging professional relationships with female colleagues.”
Men Are Worried About Harassment
Since the #MeToo falloout, 82 percent of men have admitted to being worried about false claims of harassment—more than any other gender issue in the workplace. Worse still, that fear has resulted in half of all male managers feeling uncomfortable mentoring, socializing, and working alone with women, revealed a LeanIn survey. Now, senior men are three times more likely to hesitate to ask a junior-level woman to a work dinner than a junior-level man.
Fixing the Problem
Unfortunately, these negative responses to #MeToo could slow the progress for female leadership, which is precisely the opposite reaction that the movement promoted. It’s also bad for organizations, as research shows that female executives increase profitability.
So, what can organizations do to ensure these adverse reactions to #MeToo don’t stop women from climbing the ladder? Here are three things that Columbia University professor Jason Wingard tells Forbes companies could do.
1. Improve Workplace Flexibility
According to Pew research, over half of millennial mothers (58 percent) admit that being a parent makes it harder to get ahead at work. Only 19 percent of fathers feel that way.
If you want more women in leadership, you have to improve workplace flexibility to accommodate families better. When there are stronger policies in place that allow women to meet the demands of the office and home, then more women will remain in the workforce. This includes offering extended maternity leave, childcare options, and flexible working arrangements.
2. Develop Sponsorship Programs
Your company can also help advance women in leadership by formalizing relationships between male leaders and female subordinates via sponsorships. Compared to mentorships, sponsorships are more official and advocated by senior leaders, which can remove some of the fear.
Best yet, sponsors are typically more satisfied in their career and women being sponsored are 68 percent satisfied with their career advancement. Furthermore, 85 percent of mothers with sponsors are more likely to continue working full time compared to just 58 percent without.
3. Make Clear Company Policies
Since #MeToo, 55 percent of American men feel that it’s more difficult to know how to interact with women at work. Companies that create more clarity in the workplace with clearly defined sexual harassment policies can help alleviate this concern. Organizations should also clearly define company policies regarding romantic relationships in the workplace.
No matter what your company decides to do in response to #MeToo, the key thing to remember is that action must be taken now. You cannot wait and allow negative reactions to the movement to harm women’s ability to reach leadership positions at your organization.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from its original source, Clear Admit.
Celebrating Diversity During One Wharton Week at UPenn
Clear Admit recently explored how the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania has become a premiere institution of diversity among U.S. business schools.
As part of a commitment to celebrating and examining diversity, the MBA community at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School has, since 2015, observed an annual Return on Equality (ROE) Week—recently renamed One Wharton Week. Throughout the week, held this year from February 12th through 15th, MBA students gather to build community and create an open dialogue about diversity through lectures, panels, and other special events.
“One Wharton Week has evolved in the three years since Return on Equality was founded, but at its core, it’s still the greatest demonstration of how the Wharton community can come together and learn from each other,” Simone Thomas, WG’18, co-president of ROE, explained in a news story on the Wharton website. ROE is a student-led coalition with the stated vision of making Wharton “a pioneering institution that deliberately equips students to be leaders and advocates of inclusive organizational practices, enabling individuals to be recognized and valued as their whole selves.”
One Wharton Week is made possible by a coalition of clubs and student organizations from across the university that come together to put on programming. In the mix this year, the Wharton Analytics Club hosted an event examining bias in technology and algorithms. The Media & Entertainment Club also screened the movie Get Out, which addresses a range of topics related to racism, and followed up the viewing with small group discussions.
“We wanted this collaborative effort to express the deep commitment from all groups to diversity and inclusion work here at Wharton,” Thomas said.
Other events included a discussion of personal faith, a talk from Vice Dean of the MBA program Howard Kaufold entitled “The Business of Equity,” and an examination of the #MeToo movement. The #MeToo talk was one of the most highly anticipated events for the week, staged amid an intense political climate on campus and many efforts to make a difference put forth by students, organizations, and administrators.
“We’re hoping to facilitate an open discussion in which we can understand the experience and thoughts from both genders and provide a platform for people to ask questions about a very uncomfortable and complicated topic,” Thomas explained. A full schedule of the events hosted during One Wharton Week is listed here.
Although One Wharton Week is largely student run—with members of the MBA Classes of 2018 and 2019 in charge of securing speakers, promoting the week, and advising on content—it also receives strong administrative support. This partnership between the administration and students was formed in 2017 when Kaufold asked members of the Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Steering Committee to meet with students to collaborate and advise on the MBA program’s diversity and inclusion strategy.
Below is a sneak peek inside One Wharton Week 2018.
UT Arlington Study Finds Sexual Harassment Progress in the Workplace Still Lacking
Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington College of Business are revisiting a 20-year-old study on the impact of sexual harassment in the workplace, observing the progress and remaining challenges facing society.
