Women Can’t Go Back to the Pre-Pandemic Status Quo

Survey data collected in 2018 and 2019 from Harvard Business School graduates revealed that for women — and especially women of color — well-being at work was suffering long before the pandemic. While 17% of all respondents said that they often or very often experienced burnout, a quarter of women, and nearly 30% of women of color, said they did. The mental health of Millennial women stood out as especially at risk, with close to 20% of both white women and women of color reporting that it was negatively impacted by work often or very often. And 20% of women across racial groups and generations said they were “very” or “extremely” likely to look for a new job in the next year. To build diverse pipelines to leadership, companies need to turn the Great Resignation into the Great Reset, updating their processes to mitigate or prevent the gender and racial inequities that can add stress and strain to workers’ experiences.