International Women's Day 2024

Inclusion Matters 

PwC’s Global Hopes and Fears Survey 2023, one of the world’s largest global workforce surveys, draws insights from the views and experiences of close to 54,000 workers across 46 countries. To mark this year’s International Women’s Day, we delve deeper into this research, sharing fresh gender-focused perspectives from the almost 23,000 women who responded to the questionnaire.

To maximise our insights from the research, we decided to look beyond diversity and probe further into inclusion. This meant applying a gender lens to understand the real impact of inclusion and how much it matters to the experiences and outcomes of women at work. To do this we developed a Workplace Inclusion Indicator Index that measures three key dimensions: inclusive decision-making, belonging and fairness. 

Last year, our #EmpoweringWomen research told us that men and women rated inclusive decision-making (“my manager considers my viewpoint when making decisions”) and belonging of almost equal importance among the attributes they were seeking from their employers. The good news is that this year’s survey suggests we are seeing some progress, with women experiencing higher levels of inclusive decision making (+3 points) and stronger belonging (+2 points) than last year. 

However, while this progress is welcome, there’s still much further to go. The differences that men and women report in inclusive decision-making, belonging and fairness remain statistically significant and reveal an inclusion gap at work.

The inclusion impact

To gain further insight into this workplace inclusion gap, we have dug deeper into the Inclusion Index scores to identify the women who feel the highest levels of workplace inclusion (the top quartile). When we do this, we find that workplace inclusion really matters – and is a critical lever for improving gender equity and propelling women’s advancement in the workplace – at a time when global progress on the pervading gender representation gaps in upper management and leadership positions remains consistently slow.

This research finds there is a significant gap between the inclination of men and women to ask for promotions (-9 points) and pay raises (-8 points). However, women who feel higher levels of workplace inclusion are 1.4 times more likely to ask for a raise and 1.5 times more likely to ask for a promotion, when compared to the other women in our survey.

What’s more, women who experience higher levels of inclusion are 1.7 times more likely to have higher levels of job satisfaction and 2.3 times more likely to feel job fulfilment; they’re also 1.7 times more likely to seek out opportunities to learn and develop new skills. Furthermore in a workforce climate where overwork is leading to increasing levels of burnout, they are also 1.4 times less likely to feel their workload is  frequently unmanageable. 

While stronger workplace inclusion undoubtedly presents opportunities to empower women to lean into their career advancement and development, it also provides clear benefits for the employer. Women with Inclusion Index scores in the top quartile are 2.2 times more likely to recommend their employer as a good place to work, and have 1.4 times lower intentions to change employer than women with lower inclusion scores. These impacts from higher workplace inclusion may be especially valuable to employers at a time when they are facing talent shortages, and when women’s intention to change employers is on the rise – increasing to 25% from 17% last year. 

The overall message? Inclusion at work is empowering and beneficial for all, but especially so for women. A workplace where women feel that they belong, are included in decision-making, and are treated fairly and equitably is a workplace where women can thrive.

Who are the women feeling the power of inclusion the most? 

According to our Inclusion Index scores, women feeling the highest levels of workplace inclusion are those working in the technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sector. This result is driven primarily by the technology industry, which surprisingly given it is a male dominated industry has the highest women’s inclusion score of any industry (six percentage points above the global average) and is one of only four industries in which women report slightly higher inclusion scores than men. Women working in the financial services and industrial manufacturing sectors rank second and third highest respectively, but there is still a significant gender gap in favour of men across both of these sectors. The second-place ranking of financial services is fuelled by the real estate and private equity industries, where women report higher Inclusion Index scores than men and higher scores than women across all industries, by 1.9 and 1.5 percentage points respectively. Women working in the aerospace, defence and security industry and the automotive industry have the lowest Inclusion Index scores, with the former scoring the lowest, 12 percentage points below women working in the technology industry.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the more senior the position held by the women participating in our survey, the higher the levels of workplace inclusion they experience. Women in senior executive positions have the highest inclusion scores, followed by women in management positions. In contrast, those in non-management positions experience workplace inclusion significantly less than men.

Turning to ways of working, women with inclusion scores in the top quartile of our Index are ten percentage points more likely to say their job could be done remotely/from home than women in the remaining three quartiles. With new ways of working becoming more entrenched for the long term, our research makes it clear that hybrid work patterns are a significant factor in relation to inclusion. Both women and men who have a hybrid work pattern (defined as having a mix of in-person and remote working) have the highest inclusion scores. Women who work full-time remotely come next, and this is the only work pattern for which men feel slightly lower levels of inclusion than women. Interestingly, women who work full-time in-person have the lowest inclusion scores. 

Taken together, these findings indicate that autonomy over how, where and when people work fuels inclusion across the workforce. Demand for flexibility is a talent-wide proposition, and one that employers can’t afford to ignore as they seek to enhance diversity, fuel engagement and innovation, and position themselves as an employer of choice.

Applying a more intersectional lens to the data the research shows that millennial women have the highest inclusion scores, followed by Gen Z. However, Gen Z is the only generation for which women do not score significantly lower than men. 
Meanwhile, women across the UK and US who identify as an ethnic minority in their country of residence have lower inclusion scores compared with women and men identifying as part of an ethnic majority.

What's changed for women? 

While a year-on-year comparison reveals positive changes for women across many of this year’s research results, and the gaps between men and women on many dimensions have narrowed very slightly, the reality in most cases is that the changes are only incremental – and we are still seeing significant differences in favour of men on almost all measures. 

The good news for employers is that women are much more likely to recommend their company as a good place to work compared to last year. However, in contrast, men's and women’s turnover intentions have increased in the past year, more significantly so for women: they are eight percentage points more likely to say they will change their employer in the next 12 months. 

Last year, women identified a workplace where they can truly be themselves (belonging) as their third most important factor (at 67%) for workplace empowerment, and one of their top four considerations when deciding to make a change in their career. This year how they rate their experience of belonging increased by only two percentage points. All of this combined with the overall results of our Inclusion Index and the positive impact of inclusion on women continues to underline that employers have much more work to do to foster stronger cultures of inclusion and belonging.

The divide between those who have and those who lack specialist skills is a growing problem in workplaces and society, increasing the risk of economic inequality and acting as a critical consideration for gender equity. The women in our survey were significantly less likely to have specialist skills (69%) than the men (74%). As employers focus on transformation and reinvention, particularly as it relates to skills, it’s vital to embed an Inclusion and Diversity lens within these activities. 

This imperative is strongly underlined by our research. For example, it shows that women are significantly less likely than men to believe the skills their jobs require will change significantly, or to understand how these skills will change in the next five years. They’re also significantly less confident than men that their employers will provide the appropriate upskilling to support their development of key skills. On a more positive note, women with Inclusion Index scores in the top quartile were 14 percentage points more likely to say they had a clear sense of how the skills their job requires will change. They were also on average 21 percentage points more confident that their employers will provide them with opportunities to build upon the nine skills included in the featured Scepticism over upskilling chart below.

These findings bring major implications for employers. Successful leaders know that the currency of human capital isn’t jobs or roles, but skills. And reinvention efforts that fail to harness the support and energy of the workforce will fail. What’s more, leaders have a responsibility to help create a more equitable future by giving everyone in the organisation equal opportunities to upskill and reskill. So it’s critical to engage everyone in the why, the how and the what of any transformation – and to help them gain the skills they’ll need to thrive through the reinvention effort and beyond.

Inclusion inspires ownership of career development 

For the purposes of exploring the extent to which workers are focused on building their own career, we have created a ‘Build Your Own Career Index’ through a combined analysis of the two questions; I actively seek out opportunities to learn/develop new skills and I actively seek feedback and use it to improve my performance. These results reveal that men are more inclined to invest in their own professional development than women. 

Our analysis also shows a positive correlation between our Inclusion Index and our Build your own Career Index. Women with Inclusion Index scores in the top quartile are 1.7 times more likely to actively seek out opportunities to learn and develop new skills, and 1.8 times more likely to actively seek feedback and use it to improve their performance; compared with women with lower inclusion scores. Women in a more inclusive workplace feel more empowered to drive their career development and embrace opportunities such as upskilling and reskilling.

A skills-first workforce strategy is good for equity, and strong workplace inclusion is good for skills-building – creating a virtuous circle that simultaneously benefits women, the employee base in general, employers, and the wider economy. By redesigning career paths around skills, not jobs, employers can give women (and other underrepresented talent) more agency and opportunity as jobs change. You can learn more about how a skills-first approach can help build efficient and equitable labour markets in the PwC-supported Putting Skills First report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF). 

The benefits of building your own career 

We see many other benefits for those women scoring in the top quartile of our Build Your Own Career Index. For example, they are 1.9 times more likely to ask for a promotion, 2 times more likely to recommend their employer as a good place to work and 1.8 times more likely to feel a sense of job fulfilment, than women with lower index scores. 

Our analysis also reveals that women in senior executive and management positions are ten percentage points more likely to be focused on building their own careers than women in non-management positions; and that both men and women with hybrid work patterns have the highest Build Your Own Career Index scores.

Business leaders everywhere are prioritising transformation: PwC’s 27th Annual Global CEO Survey, Thriving in an age of continuous reinvention, finds that the vast majority of companies are already taking some steps towards reinvention. In the midst of this widespread reshaping of today’s organisations, it’s worrying that our latest Hopes and Fears research suggests the majority of workers lack a clear view of how their job requirements may change. If employees don’t understand or anticipate how their work or job will be affected, they may not be adequately prepared to acquire the new skills they’ll need to remain relevant and effective in their roles. And our survey results show that this gap between current and future skills requirements is a bigger concern for women than for men. The effect could be to leave women more vulnerable to job losses as skills continue to evolve, and as companies augment or replace jobs with automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), or both. 

Employees can be forgiven for not having a clear view of their future skills requirements. Employers can’t. Every leadership team should be able to draw a direct line from the capabilities their organisation needs to grow and innovate, to the specific business outcomes they want to achieve, including transformation. But drawing this line isn’t a static exercise: leaders must also be prepared to adjust the plan – repeatedly – as the environment evolves. And throughout, they must communicate clearly and consistently what the changes mean for their people, in order to harness their energy and avoid surprises. The bottom line? Employers have a responsibility to help create a more equitable future, by giving everyone in the organisation the right opportunities to upskill and reskill – and providing a clear path forward for all. 

This responsibility is all the greater in light of the latest technological advances. In PwC’s 27th Annual Global CEO Survey, CEOs say that 40% of the time spent on hiring processes and performance reviews is inefficient. To help address this issue, leaders are looking to leverage AI and Generative AI (GenAI) to eliminate administrative inefficiencies and transform business processes. As they make these improvements, particularly as they relate to people processes, there are also real opportunities to enhance the relevant systems with higher levels of inclusiveness, fairness and objectivity. However, this is not a given. While measures to mitigate the impact of bias within AI design will be fundamental across the board, more than one-third – 34% – of CEOs are concerned that GenAI is likely to increase bias towards specific groups of employees. Furthermore, this research shows that women are more likely than men to believe that AI will not affect their jobs in the next five years (24% compared with 20%), and are less likely than men to identify beneficial impacts from AI. Engaging the workforce, particularly women, in transparent and purpose-driven plans and decisions can help employees who are wary or less aware of AI – and what it may mean for their jobs – feel more comfortable experimenting with it and even adopting it into their work where appropriate. 

As such findings underline, applying an Inclusion and Diversity lens to reinvention initiatives, with a view to understanding both the diversity impact and opportunity, should be an integral and organic part of all transformation activity. Equally paramount is inclusive execution of any change: without the support and energy of all of your people, efforts to reinvent your organisation will fail. To build trust, start with transparency, and invite employees to play an active role in the reinvention. Also, consider adopting citizen-led innovation, an approach that helps employees build skills and apply them right away. And redesign career paths around skills, not jobs – so employees have more agency and opportunity as jobs change. 

This research shows that inclusion will not just bring benefits on the input side, but also in terms of outputs. Take women’s views on how AI will affect their careers going forward. The women in our research who say they feel higher levels of workplace inclusion foresee more beneficial impacts on their career from the impact of AI than women with lower inclusion scores. They are six percentage points more likely than our women respondents as a whole to feel that AI will help them increase their productivity/efficiency at work, create opportunities for them to learn valuable new skills, and open up new job opportunities for them.

Overall, the data in our #InclusionMatters research is unequivocal. Women continue to face challenges in the workplace – and, as a result, are less likely to feel inclusion at work. For those women who are experiencing higher levels of workplace inclusion we see it is a key enabler of creating a workplace culture where women are more empowered to lean into their advancement and development; and have greater readiness to respond to the disrupting forces shaping the workforce today.

Learn more about what employers can do to respond to these insights below.