Bonnie Low-Kramen sets out five ways that leaders can ally with women to succeed and thrive
Data shows that 46% of the world’s working population is female and 93-97% of the world’s administrative support staff are women. Those kinds of numbers bear paying some attention to the challenges that exist for professional women in 2025. These challenges include:
- Persisting negative stereotypes about women and about the role of assistants
- Bullying and sexual harassment
- Inequity in compensation
- Slow advancement
- Discrimination and racism
Here are five ways that company leaders and HR can ally with women to succeed and thrive.
1. Support from the top
Leadership needs to decide that supporting female staff is a priority and to advertise their stance. Once that happens, the company website and all materials need to reflect that initiative, including job descriptions. After all, to attract new talent, the materials appearing on the Careers tab of websites are the first contact with anyone considering working for a company.
Indra Nooyi led PepsiCo as CEO for 12 years from 2006. In her book, My Life in Full, and in interviews, she candidly shares how women are never quite enough and that there is a very real double standard in play. “Women are either too loud or too soft, too feminine or too masculine.” She was committed to levelling the playing field for women at PepsiCo and the website shows it in photos, videos, language, and in programs for advancement.
2. Support for families
Family and women-friendly policies need to be created and enforced in companies, such as education around sexual harassment training and anti-racism and discrimination. Being a working mother is something to be celebrated rather than a reality to be hidden or shamed. The companies that are being sought out by women are the ones that offer guilt-free schedule flexibility, parking spots for pregnant women, and actual breast-feeding rooms.
Susan Wojcicki passed away on Aug 9, 2024. She was the CEO of YouTube from 2014-2023. However, it was in 1999 when she rented her garage to Larry Page and Sergey Brin to start Google and she was 4 months pregnant with her first of five children that her extraordinary journey began. Susan took a chance on these young guys who promised that they would support her to be a successful working mother. Susan became Google’s VP of Marketing.
Susan helped create the policy that would entitle any Google employee who has a baby to 18 weeks of paid maternity leave. She was the first person to take it and then return to work. This became front-page news which is how I learned about Susan Wojcicki and her groundbreaking advocacy for working parents. In December 2014, Susan wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal telling her story and making the point that to give fair family leave would mean more women would return to work. The new 18-week policy resulted in 50% lower employee resignations. https://lnkd.in/dgjHnVFE
Other company leaders have followed Susan’s lead, but progress in family leave is still slow. In 2024, the United States is still the only country that does not have a national policy for paid leave. However, 13 states plus the District of Columbia all have mandated paid family leave. It’s optional for the rest.
3. Pay women equitably
Pay Transparency, pay equity, and closing the wage gap need to be a normalized part of the culture along with open communication about the details of these plans to level the financial playing field between men and women. Hiring practices can reflect these initiatives to pay women fairly rather than the lowest amount they will agree to.
CitiGroup and Google are a part of an increasingly growing group of companies that are publicly posting salary ranges for all jobs and are spending money to close the wage gap. In 2018, Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce at the time, famously appeared on the TV show 60 Minutes to discuss how they closed the gap which entailed investing millions of dollars.
- In Hollywood, actors Chadwick Bozeman, Chris Pratt, and Benedict Cumberbatch have all taken voluntary pay cuts for their female costars to be the same as them.
- In the WNBA, superstar Caitlin Clark earned $76,000 in her rookie year (2024) compared to NBA star Stephen Curry who made $3 million in his 2009 rookie year.
4. Invest in Education and Professional Development
In a workplace that has never been more complicated, continuous education for Assistants is vital to keep companies successful. Melinda Gates is donating $1 billion to support women’s access to education. In addition to technology training, project management, and event planning courses, necessary educational programs inside companies include;
- sexual harassment training
- anti-bullying training
- diversity and anti-discrimination/racism training
- leadership training
Johnson & Johnson is one example of a company whose leaders strongly believe in professional development and employee resource groups as champions of the staff, especially women.
5. Stand Up Against the Micro and Macro Aggressions of Racism and Discrimination
A Black EA told our Be the Ultimate Assistant class that a co-worker said, “I cannot sit behind you because I can’t see around your hair.” Another shared a co-worker’s comment, “I couldn’t tell you were Black when we talked on the phone. You sound White.” When asked how often a 50-something EA heard racist remarks, she looked me straight in the eye and said, “Pretty much every day. And as much as the comments hurt me, you will never know it. If I complain, I get labelled as the angry Black woman and a troublemaker and I want to keep my job.”Yet another woman, of Latin descent said, “I try so hard to follow the rules of the corporate game to gain a promotion, but the rules change, depending on who needs to follow them. They keep moving the goalposts.”
Discrimination is not only about race and often falls into stereotypes. A BTUA student from the American South shared that her coworkers assumed she was not smart because of her strong vocal accent. A student from Brazil often heard comments about her body and sexuality simply because of her country of origin. A student from Vietnam told our class that her co-workers assumed she must be “really good at math.”
Leaders and HR have an important role to play in setting the expectations for company culture and civility as they relate to empowering a diverse workforce. Women of color report having difficulty fighting against microaggressions, especially when comments are viewed as “innocent” or “amusing,” rather than traumatizing and preoccupying. This is a lose/lose situation because of lost productivity compounded with the mental health toll. Awareness and accountability are the keys to building cultures of respect where everyone feels seen, heard, and respected, regardless of their skin color or ethnicity.
Staff Matters
In my book, Staff Matters, I offer an in-depth exploration of gender differences in the workplace. If these issues are compelling, I strongly urge you to read the book. My premise is that genders are, in fact, different. To ignore or deny that fact is a misstep in effectively managing people.
My intention is to expedite understanding of the gender issues as they relate to all staff of all genders – Assistants, Leaders, HR, Recruiters, and Business School students. No one group can fix what is broken alone and 2025 is the time to work together and do it. Women certainly cannot address these issues alone and fixing them is going to require meaningful discussions and collaborative action plans that involve the entire staff.
Moving to a Better Future
If you are reading this and wondering if these situations for women are happening in your company, I recommend asking directly. Through the research for the book, I have come to understand that men don’t always see what is happening because it is not impacting them directly. Therefore, the only way to know for sure is to ask direct questions about women’s experience with pay equity, career progression, mentorship, discrimination, family leave policies and training.
