rim5

Want gender parity in your workforce? Retain and advance women early in their careers.

In the news

•

Digital divide. Men are 21% more likely to have internet access than women across the globe. And in the world’s least developed countries, that number rises to 52%. Closing this colossal digital gender divide—exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic—will require not just internet access and equipment but also access to training and education. The ongoing digital acceleration can amplify opportunities for women to get the access and training they need—especially for the new technologies that will comprise the majority of future jobs. [WEF]

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#DressForSTEM. Pi Day is celebrated around the world on March 14. That’s also the day of “Dress for STEM,” an annual event celebrating women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). This year marked the seventh such celebration, with participants around the world wearing purple to honor women STEM pioneers as well as past, present, and future generations of women scientists. The event is also a reminder of the stark underrepresentation of women in many STEM fields: although they make up almost half of the labor force, in 2022, women hold just 27% of all STEM careers. [WaPo]

Most of the leaders we interviewed acknowledged that their companies have uneven early-promotions processes that perpetuate the broken rung on the career ladder for women in technical roles.

On McKinsey.com

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Off the bat. Long-term career success is crucially dependent on early promotions. And that’s exactly where McKinsey research consistently shows that women lose ground. Across all industries and roles, women hold 48% of entry-level roles and 41% of first-level manager positions. But in crucial technical fields like engineering and product management, where women hold just 34% of entry-level roles to start, just about one-fourth (26%) hold first-level manager positions. Diversity is critical in these technical roles to help debias the technologies that are such an intrinsic part of modern life.

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Broken rung. To better understand the barriers that women in technical roles face around early promotions, McKinsey spoke with early-tenure individuals who work in technical roles, as well as their leaders and supervisors. We found that most companies are aware of the broken rung on this career ladder. But the majority of the people we interviewed said that their companies are not monitoring women’s advancement in these roles and lack a systematic approach to that advancement. See three enablers that can help organizations make career development easier and fairer for women in technical roles.

— Edited by Justine Jablonska

Repair the ladder

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Author Talks: A tale of two Americas

AN ARTICLE A DAY, PICKED BY OUR EDITORS

As much as America is the land of opportunity for many, it is also a place with great inequality. According to Tom Vozzo, CEO of Homeboy Industries, there are two Americas: “the America that most of us live in, and then the America that the poor and the marginalized—the demonized people—live in.” In a new episode of Author Talks, Vozzo talks about his journey from corporate executive to leading the world’s largest gang rehabilitation and reentry program. Hear what he has to say—and explore how we can apply these life lessons to helping disenfranchised people move forward in life.

— Joyce Yoo, digital editor, New York

Author Talks: A tale of two Americas

Tom Vozzo spent 26 years as a top executive before pivoting to a nonprofit that rehabilitates gang members. The philosophies that help them reenter society, he says, would help corporate America too.

Change your perspective

Quote of the Day

“Growth increases our incomes and our standards of living. It increases security and resilience, poverty alleviation, and education, so there are many positive associations. But growth touches on inequality because skills bias leads to a dispersion of income, so growth also promotes the wealth of the people at the bottom of society.”

—Sven Smit, McKinsey senior partner, on creating a path to sustainable and inclusive growth in a recent episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast

Chart of the Day

Chart of the projected declines of internal-combustion-engine components

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