No. 59. Are DEI initiatives harming women's career progress?

My opinion on how we as Christian women should approach DEI efforts in corporate America

A couple weeks ago, I was talking to someone who was assembling a panel for an organization she’s part of on how students and women early in their careers can get involved in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Our conversation got me thinking about the unique position we’re in as Christian women when it comes to DEI in the corporate world, so I wanted to share my personal thoughts on this, even if it may be a bit controversial and counter cultural.

DEI has been a corporate buzzword for a couple years now, with most major companies hiring a Chief Diversity Officer to lead their efforts in this space in the last 2-3 years.

However, if you’ve been following the news, you might have seen that when companies start doing layoffs, HR and diversity jobs are often the first to go. This casts some doubt on whether these efforts by major corporations were genuine or merely a trend / pressure from investors, but regardless of their intent, as women in the corporate world, this is something that impacts us. 

As Christians, we should see everyone equally: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (Jam.‬ ‭2:8-9‬).

You can read more about what the Bible says about social justice on my blog. 

But, the reality is that corporations aren’t Christian, and although we’ve made significant strides for women in the workplace, many corporate environments, especially in male dominated professions like law and finance, are still a white man’s world. 

Here are some examples:

• Take the motherhood penalty - studies show that managers are less likely to hire mothers than women who don’t have children, and if they do hire a mother, they’re often offered a lower salary. There isn’t a fatherhood penalty for men who become dads. 

• Over the past 20 years, the gender pay gap has remained an issue. In 2022, women earned an average of 82% of what men earned. In 2002, the gender pay gap was 80%. 

• For the first time in history, the number of female CEOs in the Fortune 500 has reached its highest level: a mere 9%.

• Here’s another recent record: women made up 45% of all new Fortune 500 board appointments in 2021 (with Black directors coming in at 26% of new appointees and 43% first-time directors). This likely stems from a push in 2020 for corporations and private equity owned companies to diversify boards. 

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ICYMI: No. 61. Are female board members to blame for SVB’s failure? My thoughts on recent events & how women show up in the corporate world.

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I could go on and on with examples. But that’s not the point of this. As Christians, in my opinion, we should only get behind corporate initiatives that align with our personal beliefs and skill sets.

We should encourage and support more diversity at the levels and companies / professions we’re in, but (1) I don’t think we should follow all DEI initiatives blindly and (2) although diversity is good in the corporate workplace, I don’t think we should push women into the workforce solely for diversity purposes.

Let me explain. 

First, the most recent McKinsey and LeanIn study on women in the workplace found:

• Women leaders are twice as likely as men leaders to spend substantial time on DEI work

• 40% of women leaders say their DEI work isn’t acknowledged at all in performance reviews

• 43% of women leaders are burned out, compared to only 31% of men at their level

• Women of color reported that they are 39% more likely than white women to spend time working on diversity initiatives

Why does this matter? Because if you’re spending a good chunk of your time at work on efforts that aren’t being recognized in your performance reviews, even if you think it’s because you’re making a difference, then it’s going to make it that much more difficult to move up the ladder.

This is time spent doing non-promotable work. It might be worthwhile in your eyes, but it could potentially be holding back your career because while you’re trying to help with DEI initiatives for the greater good, your male counterparts are likely doing actual billable work that is helping them get promoted.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we should just not do anything to promote diversity in our teams and workplaces, but instead, that we should speak up and ask managers and leadership to recognize these efforts in performance evaluations.

But even if it is not an option for you to drive company policy like this, you are likely in control of what you talk about with your boss in your one on ones and performance evaluations. Bring up your contributions to DEI efforts if you are involved in them, and then connect your efforts to how it helped the company’s bottom line and strategic goals. Come prepared with specific contributions, examples, and results.

Second, because corporations were historically male-dominated workplaces, and parts of that still remain today, we as women (and people from other diverse backgrounds) often feel like we don’t quite fit in and like we have to work twice as hard to succeed compared to our white male counterparts. You can’t fit a square peg in a round hole.

This is a good article with five examples of how women feel like they have to adapt in corporate America.  There are also studies that show women who work full time often take on more caregiving and household tasks than working fathers / men do, which means that the whole be in the office 9-5 traditional corporate schedule just doesn’t work for many women. It’s why study after study shows that women value flexibility and remote work more than men.

Why does this matter? Getting more diversity in corporate America is a great idea and there are many studies that show the unique contributions women bring to a workplace, but it doesn’t mean that corporate is always the best place for women. 

In fact, some women, especially during the season when they have small children, choose to step away from the corporate world to start their own businesses or not do paid work at all, because corporate life just doesn’t align with their needs and desires in that season. 

Sure, corporations and employers can and should do their best to make their companies more friendly towards women, especially mothers, but it is not necessary to hire more women (or diverse hires in general) solely to meet a required quota or number on some strategic plan or to get good PR. 

Corporations should not treat women as mere statistics to meet a targeted number because it is a woke trend to have diversity on your team or because there’s pressure from shareholders to diversify.

Women can’t truly grow or thrive in an environment like that, nor should women be the primary drivers and leaders of DEI initiatives in the corporate world - men, especially white men and those in leadership, should be just as involved in DEI efforts as their female co-workers.

And this involvement should be directly tied to performance evaluations, raises and promotions, especially if this is something that a company truly values and wants to see growth in.

Okay, this was a long one and probably not the most diplomatically or eloquently phrased, but I hope it somewhat captures my opinion on the issue of how Christian women should approach DEI initiatives in the corporate world. 

I’d love to hear your opinion and thoughts on this topic! 

Until next time,

YPS

P.S. How women can better excel in the corporate world is a passion of mine. I’m currently working on an online course on this topic, so if any of this resonated with you, come join the wait list to be the first to hear when the course is ready!