Beware the Gender Gap in the Workplace!

A menacing gender gap is present in the corporate workplace, and it is collectively costing companies hundreds of millions of dollars in top line revenue, operating expenses, and bottom line growth.  Gender-related challenges impact sales behavior, management styles and effectiveness, co-worker interactions and performance, even customer care.  the American workplace and workforce is at the highest level of risk.  We need to bridge this insidious gender gap, and we need to do it immediately!

Women and men at work have unique psychographics, preferred working environments, diverse management styles, distinct selling and buying behaviors, and struggle to communicate effectively with each other while seemingly speaking two differnet languages.  Both genders want and need help adjusting and adapting.  But too often employees accept the status quo, merely existing in the prevailing culture while their productivity suffers, or quit without articulating the real reasons why.  The workforce is changing dramatically and it needs to be fixed, but it will take both women and men to fix it.

Consider these stunning statistics:

• Women make up 49.83% of the U.S. workforce and are projected to top fifty percent by the end of the calendar year 2009
• 57% of undergraduate college students are women
• 59% of graduate students are women
• 62% of college degrees are conferred to women
• 52% of corporate middle managers are women
• 3% of corporate CEOs are women and are projected to be 15% by 2020
• 70% of women earning six figures per year make more than their husbands or boyfriends
• 83% of consumer purchases in the U.S. are made by women
• 96% of financial decision-makers in homes with children are women
• 78% of  the jobs lost since December 2007 have been to men

Anyone who still thinks the workplace is a man’s world, the boys’ club, or the exclusive province of successful men is not only grossly misinformed, but patently wrong.  Still, while we are making great progress at creating a more egalitarian workforce, such a dramatic culture change is not without its painful side effects.  For example, stress levels are at all time highs among women and men, women are experiencing record numbers of heart attacks and strokes, absenteeism is on the rise, employee turnover is increasing, and related healthcare costs continue to soar.

Human capital is the most value-changing asset in any organization, yet it is the one asset often least attended to.  Shifts in its value can have a profound effect on organizational performance.  Today, that very human capital is more at risk than ever before because men and women often find themsleves struggling to work effectively together.  Bridging the gender gap in the workplace can have a powerfl impact on overall employee performance, and is paramount to maximizing productivity and achieving organizational success.  In my next blog entry I’ll begin to share with you how we can fix this very serious and growing challenge.

Ron Stout has a B.A. in Psychology and an M.S. in Counseling & Human Development. He is an adjunct professor teaching college courses in Educational Psychology, Human Development, and Personal & Social Adjustment, and he is the author of the popular book Secrets From Inside The Clubhouse: What Men REALLY Think About Women.

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