Here a little bit of research on women, creativity and gender inequality

Leaky pipeline is a metaphor used to describe the progressive loss of capable women for senior roles in STEM disciplines. Nevertheless, this same underrepresentation happens in many other fields. The leaky pipeline model shows a “disproportionate number of women remaining in low-level positions” with a loss of female talent at every educational or professional transition. As a result, there are many fewer women than men in high-level positions. Only 1 out of 4 C-suite leaders are women, and only 1 in 20 is a woman of color. The reasons behind “the leaky pipeline” are rather opaque: is not easy to know what happens to female professionals who get lost along the way.

We were curious to know what happened to women from this community so we decided to ask you

We made questions, you gave the answers

We wanted to know the conditions and difficulties along your academic and professional paths so we did an online survey on Instagram and LinkedIn. 90% of you responded showing that both during academic and/or professional stages women have to face certain restrictions conditioned by gender oppressions. 43% of you answered that you had to give up an academic experiences caused by lack of family support or responsibilities in caring and domestic work. As a consequence of this decision, half of women designers who faced this situation felt “personal or professional dissatisfaction” and 30% could not aim at certain jobs. When we asked about the milestones in their work life 54% of women designers had restrictions to ascend in their professional career. As a result 60% of them shared that they had a feeling of dissatisfaction and 32% assured the way their career changed had as a consequence financial instability or dependence.


Studies show

We did some further research and found a very recent study that sheds light on the problems that lead women not to reach leadership positions. Here some conclusions:

1.Women have to face stronger headwinds as is more likely for them to get judgment from colleagues regarding their qualification for their jobs or their personal characteristics (such as their gender, sexual orientation or being a parent).

2.Women leaders are overworked and under-recognized and they do more work to support their peers well-being.

3.Women leaders want a better work culture: This happens especially amongst young women as for them is critical to find a better work-life and build diverse and inclusive teams.

4.The need of an intersectional look: we couldn’t find a study that fully captures the experiences of women with traditionally marginalized identities. Nevertheless, all data confirms that latina, black, asian and LGBTQ+ women often have a worse experience at work suffering less support, lack of allyship, micro-aggressions and demeaning behaviors that lead to less psychological safety.

References:
Lean In; McKinsey&Company. 2022. Women in the workplace

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