Gender diversity has been talked about for as long as I can remember particularly in western countries so I must say it was disturbing to read the following headlines in the Financial Times earlier this month :

 

 

It is disappointing that even though the proportion of women in graduating classes from tertiary educational institutions has steadily been increasing , the labour force participation rate of prime age American women has actually fallen in the past decade. 

 

One key factor for this sorry state of affairs is the lack of incentives for women to stay in the workforce after they have children. Not only do organisations need to  have family friendly policies such as guaranteed right to paid parental leave and affordable childcare but equally important are the attitudes of employers and fellow colleagues towards female employees when they are in the family way or need to look after young children or aged parents. 

 

This is where BoardGender SG50 Champions of Change can play an important influencing role by engaging members of C-Suites to see the benefits of not only having the right policies in place but also fostering an inclusive and caring culture within organisations. Only then can we hope to stem the haemorrhaging of mid- career female talent and have a  larger pool of women candidates for C-Suite and Board appointments.