Women are just so friggin’ burned out: What the new ‘Women in the Workplace’ report reveals

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… 🎶

No, we’re not talking about the holidays, silly — this week the annual “Women in the Workplace” report was released! Okay, maybe it’s not exactly a celebratory thing since the news is often (read: always) pretty bad, but the glass-half-full view is that the more this data sees the light of day, the better. What gets measured gets managed, people, and we don’t want to be going to our graves ⚰️reeling off sad stats about gender inequality, we want fixes!

 But, as mentioned, to get said fixes, we need to get the data out there. Here’s a super quick look at a few of the stats:

🤯  42% of women are “often or almost always” burned out versus 32% a year earlier.  Male burnout rates increased less dramatically, from 28% to 32%.

👍  For the first time, women of color were promoted to manager at about the same rate as women overall. 

👎  For every 100 men who are promoted, 86 women are promoted. 

👎  Women make up only 24% of the C-suite, and they’re mostly white — women of color hold just 4% of top-tier titles. 

You can peruse the full “2021 Women in the Workplace” report at your leisure here.

P.S. Thanks to the readers of last week’s newsletter who weighed in on the “should there be a female James Bond?” debate — 70% of you said no, 30% were into the idea. We concur with the majority. If you don’t know what the heck we’re talking about, read the Sept. 23 newsletter.

Other news to note 📝

Stock options are yet another glass ceiling for women. There’s a shocking gender gap in the equity owned by male employees versus female, with the value of company shares in 2018 coming in at $104,902 for men and $26,361 for women. Female employees start at a disadvantage in the negotiation stage and often don’t know when or how to ask about the stock options available to them. Companies, on the other hand, need to offer both education and transparency when it comes to closing this gender gap. Know better, do better, companies! Meanwhile, run, don’t walk, to talk to colleagues about their stock option packages — more transparency will help change things. [WSJ]

Femicide, or men killing women, is (still) a worldwide epidemic. The recent cases of Gabby Petito, Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa are galvanizing women in the U.S. and the U.K. to demand the government take action. And they’re not necessarily asking for more policing — Sarah Everard was killed by a police officer who used his law enforcement credentials to falsely arrest her for violating Covid rules. Notably, in a tale as old as time, the cases that get the most media attention tend to involve missing or murdered white women and girls; women of color do not garner the same level of visibility and degree of outrage. Indigenous women in the U.S., for example, are murdered at a rate six times higher than that of white women, according to one statistic. [Guardian, NYT, NYT]

Who runs the world? Us. Well, not quite, but we’re allowed to dream, right? This week the UN General Assembly saw 13 women speakers — paltry, yes, but percentage-wise, a big increase over the nine women who spoke last year. And in North Africa, Najla Bouden Ramadhane just became the first woman prime minister of Tunisia and the Arab world after her appointment by President Kais Saied. (Pink-washing by an authoritarian consolidating his power? Time will tell). Over in Europe, Iceland elected its first majority-female parliament, with 33 out of 63 seats going to women. [Fortune, NPR, Axios]

We are finally “Believing” Anita Hill. Hill famously testified against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas before the Senate almost 30 years ago, speaking openly about sexual harassment long before #MeToo. Now, her new memoir of activism, “Believing,” was released this week, detailing the many ways in which her law career was upended by her courageous testimony. Hill’s book explores the intersectionality and persistence of gendered violence in America and how we can start to address “the iceberg” of sexual harassment and abuse. If there’s anyone we should be listening to (and believing) on this topic, it’s Anita Hill. [The Cut, Guardian]

Don’t call it a comeback just yet, Al. Former senator Al Franken, who fell from grace after several women accused him of sexual misconduct in 2017, is hitting the comedy clubs with his political funnyman schtick, casting himself as the victim of backstabbing colleagues. Seems pretty cringey. Meanwhile, TV exec Shelley Ross wrote an opinion essay about how CNN’s Chris Cuomo sexually harassed her (and then apologized to her husband first, *facepalm*). MEANWHILE, Disney top exec Peter Rice is declining to investigate how the company handled sexual assault allegations against “Good Morning America” producer Michael Corn. If this is the tip of the iceberg for sh*tty media men (which it most certainly is), we regret to report that the iceberg is winning. [NYT, NYT, WSJ]

New “Wolff of Wall Street” opens women-led investment bank. Dubbed “Salomon Sisters” after the infamous Salomon Brothers, Independence Point is launching on Wall Street under the leadership of banking veteran Anne Clarke Wolff. The firm takes aim at a white-male-dominated industry and will be exclusively owned and led by women and minorities. Lazard LTD. is reportedly in talks to partner with and invest in the new firm. [Bloomberg]

Best — and worst — o’ the rest: R&B singer R. Kelly was found guilty of sex trafficking. Video game maker Activision Blizzard settled a discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit for $18 million, “a fraction of its yearly earnings.” W.H.O. doctors and other staff members sexually exploited and abused women during an Ebola mission in Congo between 2018 and 2020, promising jobs in exchange for sex, according to an inquiry commission. Europe is doing a better job bringing more women into boardrooms. GM chair and CEO Mary Barra will be the first female CEO of the Business Roundtable, the-uber prestigious association of top U.S. business leaders. The NCAA women’s basketball tournament will finally be allowed to use “March Madness” branding, once reserved for just men’s college b-ball. If you have a “patriarchal hangover” (and who among us doesn’t?!), the cure might be watching “Y: The Last Man.”