How to Support Women in the Workplace

Working women face a broad range of challenges throughout their careers, from personal struggles to systemic issues. This applies to all women, including trans women. Although transgender individuals face different, but equally valid, challenges. It’s important to celebrate every woman in the workplace and provide them with the tools and support they need to succeed. Not only does being a supportive employer help women develop their careers, but it also contributes to better retention, a more diverse and inclusive workplace, and has a positive impact on employer branding, which benefits recruitment.

Why supporting women in the workplace matters

Employers have a duty to care for all their staff and ensure everyone is treated fairly and equally. A common misconception is that equality means treating everyone exactly the same, but in reality, it involves recognising and reducing barriers and discrimination so that everyone has has an equal chance in an inclusive workplace. A diverse environment that supports everyone encourages supported employees to remain with an organisation longer, while attracting candidates who are culturally aligned and know they will be supported within the team.

It’s obviously important for all sectors to ensure women have the support they need to enjoy long, fulfilling careers, but the charity sector is predominantly female and women make up nearly 70% of CharityJob’s candidate pool. This puts an extra spotlight on the need for charities to implement proactive policies and support systems rather than responding only when issues arise.

Challenges women face at work and how to overcome them

It’s important to remember that not all women face the same challenges, and while people of other genders also encounter them, many challenges disproportionately affect women.

1. Reproductive health and women’s wellbeing

As almost every woman can tell you, reproductive issues are often disregarded medically and nearly always hidden away at work. Women are incredibly strong, often working through their unseen issues as if nothing is wrong. Whether it’s the pain of menstruation and agony of conditions like endometriosis, the struggle and heartbreak of fertility challenges, or managing menopause symptoms, these experiences can take a big physical and emotional toll. Yet women are often still expected to continue working as normal.

All of these issues can affect women’s everyday lives. From confidence hits and hormonal changes to fatigue and physical pain, it can be a lot for someone to deal with.

While an employer is by no means expected to fix any of these issues, there are ways to ease their impact and enable women to work at their full potential:

Policies

Clear policies on female-specific issues provide employees with confidence to manage their challenges with their employer’s support. For instance, a fertility policy can give employees undergoing fertility treatment the flexibility they need to attend appointments at short notice. This will also help reduce workplace stigma around fertility, improving employee loyalty and employer value.

Make reasonable adjustments

If an employee struggles with menstrual pain, perhaps they can work from home to be more comfortable. Or if someone is dealing with hot flushes, their desk could be moved closer to a window or an air-conditioning vent. Adjustments will be dependent on the role, workplace, and person, but there are plenty of small gestures that can make a difference to a woman’s experience at work.

Training

Other employees may not be aware of the common challenges women face. Employers can run awareness sessions on topics such as the menopause, something which is incredibly misunderstood but experienced by nearly every woman. These sessions will provide much-needed education and allow employees to understand and empathise with their colleagues.

Open conversations

Ultimately, every woman is affected differently by their unique challenges, so it’s important to give women them space to share about what they’re dealing with and what can be done to support them at work.

2. Parenthood and caring responsibilities

Women are more likely to be the primary caregiver for children and family members. Managing pregnancies, taking time off work for maternity leave, and rejoining the workplace are all significant experiences. As many working mothers know, being designated the ‘default parent’ means you end up being the first person the school rings when your child is ill, and you have to stay home more for care responsibilities – either on an ad hoc or formal basis.

Any of these can become a major barrier for many women, affecting their retention and career progression. If women don’t have support from their employer and manager, this can have a detrimental effect on their confidence at work and limit their professional development. 

In addition to parental leave, which entitles parents to up to 18 weeks’ unpaid leave for each child until the child’s 18th birthday, employers may offer other policies and arrangements. These could include a space for breastfeeding mothers, parent initiatives for working parents to support one another, or the ability to work different hours to attend medical or school appointments for children.

3. Flexible working and work–life balance

Offering flexibility can also be incredibly valuable for women who balance work and parenthood or other life commitments. Rigid working models can disproportionately exclude women who have non-negotiable responsibilities that fall to them. For working mothers, a strict 9-5 in-office role can make school drop-offs and pickups impossible, while working five days a week could force them to pay for expensive childcare. 

There are several other reasons outside of motherhood that could mean a more flexible schedule is necessary for a woman, such as caring for family members or a personal chronic illness.

Flexible working approaches can be implemented fairly across the team by opening up the option to anyone who needs it, or as standard practice:

• Working hours: Allow employees to adjust their working hours to fit their life responsibilities, whether it’s an early start to accommodate mid-afternoon breaks or a later start to catch up on much-needed sleep after a difficult night.
• Part-time work: If reasonable for the organisation and the employee’s workload, switching to a part-time schedule could help women achieve the balance they need to excel both at work and outside it.
• Location: Working from home some or all of the time can save hours of commuting and allow employees to be close to schools or other places they might need to attend at a moment’s

4. Bias, inequality, and inclusive workplace culture

There are many systemic and cultural barriers that influence workplace culture, including gender pay gaps, unequal organisational structures, gender stereotypes and even the language people use. 

All these issues together can undermine women’s potential for advancement and their overall confidence in their abilities and value, but there are things employers can do to counteract these barriers, hold the organisation accountable and help women thrive:

• Close the pay gap: Conduct regular pay audits and commit to transparent salary bands to identify and close gender pay gaps.
• Make progression bias-free: Establish clear, objective criteria to reduce bias in performance evaluations and promotions.
• Overcome poor culture practices: Provide bias and inclusivity training to break through gender stereotypes and shift everyday workplace behaviours and language.
• Make diversity an organisational objective: Set measurable diversity and inclusion goals and hold leadership accountable for progress through regular reporting.

5. Mental health and psychological safety

The negative impacts of poor mental health are a challenge many face in the workplace. Women may face heightened workplace stress and discrimination every day at work because of their gender. They could also be dealing with disproportionate levels of ‘‘invisible’ responsibilities at work, such as increased emotional labour, extra admin tasks, and planning social events, which often fall to women and are generally unrecognised.

Employers can mitigate the mental toll of work by encouraging open conversation to understand the issues and take action in the following ways to resolve them:

• Improve mental health: Offer employees access to counselling and self-help resources. This is especially beneficial in charities, where workers could be dealing with sensitive issues and high workloads.
• Address discrimination: Take action when people are facing discrimination, assuring the person affected that the issue will be resolved and it’s not their fault.
• Shift the unseen load: Rotate the extra responsibilities around the office so it never falls on one person. For example, have a dishwasher rota to prevent one individual from always loading and unloading it; nominate a different person to ‘“buddy’” new joiners; or run morale-boosting events to lessen the need for women to support others’ emotions.

6. Career development and progression opportunities

Learning and development initiatives are all well and good, but long-term support is one of the most efficient ways to ensure these approaches are followed through into action.

Women face several barriers to advancing their careers, including confidence gaps, limited face time with senior leadership, and limited access to development opportunities, to name just a few. 

Women can be given equal professional opportunities with:

• Mentorship programmes: Pair women who want to progress with a passionate mentor who can guide them through the complexities and support their growth.
• Progression pathways: Present clear career paths, complete with actions and expectations women can take to demonstrate their willingness and capabilities.
• Fair feedback processes: Provide constructive feedback to help women continually improve, with clear direction they can take on board.

How can leaders and colleagues support women at work?

Supporting women at work needs to be a shared responsibility of everyone in the workplace to make it successful. Managers, leaders, and peers alike can actively support the women they work with through genuine allyship, active listening and advocacy.

What can organisations do to support women at work?

At an organisational level, every company, charity, and business has a legal obligation to provide equal treatment to those with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, which includes gender. This applies from the very start of the hiring process, where unconscious bias can be reduced with practices like anonymous recruitment, all the way through to career development opportunities.

How can women support other women in the workplace?

Women have the power to raise each other up at work, from highlighting each other’s strengths and helping each other be heard, to using positions of seniority to increase fairness for everyone.

How can men support women in the workplace?

The success of women should never come at the expense of other genders. Men have the opportunity to support female colleagues by educating themselves about the issues women may face and making a conscious effort to avoid sexist language, even if no offence is intended. Additionally, many traditional ‘“women’s issues’” also affect men, meaning that any measures implemented to benefit women will also benefit men.

Building a more supportive and inclusive workplace for women

Providing meaningful support for women at work requires employers to make ongoing commitments rather than one-off initiatives, and to implement changes in their recruitment processes to reduce bias against women during hiring, making changes before women even enter the workforce.

Want to improve your charity workforce diversity? CharityJob is passionate about creating a more inclusive workplace for women and all genders, supporting all gender-related challenges, such as menopause management, fertility policies and championing transgender employees and mothers. We’re your partner for achieving inclusive hiring and improving employee retention.

Post a job with CharityJob Apply and get free access to our end-to-end Applicant Tracking System (ATS) tools designed to improve applicant diversity. Our ATS allows you to filter CVs with keyword searches, communicate with candidates, evaluate applications and – perhaps most importantly – help remove unconscious bias from your recruitment process. 

We offer four job ad packages to suit your needs and budget. Choosing the right package is important because it determines the pool size, type, and quality of candidates your ad will reach.

If you’re not sure which is right for your non-profit organisation, contact us for personalised advice. Give us a call on 020 8939 8430, or email us at info@charityjob.co.uk.