Women have been disproportionately saddled with the impact COVID has had on their families and careers.
Nearly 5.4 million women have lost or left their jobs since February 2020, according to data from the National Women’s Law Center. Creating more inclusive work cultures, offering family-friendly benefits, and providing support in the form of mentorship and sponsorship can help women stay on track and make up for pandemic-era losses.
In this week’s top stories, workplace insights platform Comparably recently released its list of top-ranked CEOs, chosen by their female employees. Leaders from Hubspot, IBM, Adobe and others all made the list. For women, it’s not just who they work for, but where: lending firm Clarify Capital ranked the best and worst states for women-owned businesses, based on factors like the percentage of women-owned businesses, the gender pay gap and female unemployment rate in those states.
Read more: Nominations for EBN’s Excellence in Benefits Awards are now open
Expecting women to make it on their own won’t help close the wage gap or get women back to work. Three leadership experts share why sponsorship is a key component to getting more women into leadership roles. While a mentor helps women with their personal and professional goals, a sponsor takes responsibility for promoting an employee to a higher level position.
“Coaching is about development. Mentoring is about guidance. Sponsorship is about pulling someone up and advocating for them,” says Rubina F. Malik, a learning and development adviser at Malik Global Solutions. “More CEOs and higher-ups need to be allies for women. Put them in the spotlight and get them opportunities to be seen.”