In the past year, women leaders have switched jobs at the highest rates we’ve ever seen—and at higher rates than men in leadership. Women are already underrepresented in leadership roles.
According to Lean In and McKinsey’s “Women in the Workplace Study”:
Women are still dramatically underrepresented in leadership: only 1 in 4 C-suite executives is a woman, and only 1 in 20 is a woman of color.
The “broken rung” is still holding women back: for every 100 men promoted from entry-level to manager, only 87 women are promoted, and only 82 women of color are promoted.
Now, women leaders are leaving their companies at higher rates than ever before. To put the scale of the problem in perspective: for every woman at the director level who gets promoted, two women directors are choosing to leave their company...
The most recent culprit to women leaving is also: Burnout
In addition, according to Arianna Huffington’s post on LinkedIn referencing the same report:
Women are more burned out than men. The study found that 43% of women leaders are burned out, while only 31% of men at their level say the same.
Further, role models who prioritize well-being are important. Nearly two-thirds of women under 30 say they’d be more eager to advance in their careers if they could see more senior women leaders able to manage work and life in the way they want to. Work/life balance is important to young women.
That means autonomy and flexibility matter. Nearly half of women leaders (49%) say flexibility is one of the top three considerations when thinking about whether to take a job at a company or stay in one, compared to only 34% of men leaders.
A common theme through this report is one of well-being. Women are more likely than men at their levels to promote well-being, such as checking in on team members, supporting DEI initiatives, driving inclusion, and being allies to women of color. These are factors that have become more important to woman. It seems this work is not formally rewarded in most companies and though this work helps a company, it isn’t recognized which makes it harder for women to advance. This can partially explain why there is more burnout.