Everyone talks about the importance of women in the workplace and for good cause. There are numerous benefits to having female employees at all levels in a company. Women in leadership roles can improve collaborative efforts and minimize burnout among employees, according to Inc. But in addition to better staff cohesion and performance, the benefit of gender diversity includes significant payoffs for the company, including improved governance and higher financial returns.
The Benefits of Gender Diversity at Work
- 59% increase in creativity, innovation, and openness
- 37% better assessment of consumer interest and demand
- Diverse companies are 15% more likely to be profitable
- Diverse boards lead to 28% greater financial profitability
- Teams with gender equality make 41% more revenue
- Closing the gender diversity gap can increase GDP by an average of 35%
- Diverse groups solve problems faster
Gender Diverse Companies Attract Better Talent
In addition to those benefits, diverse companies also attract more talented applicants. The Harvard Business Review explains that 67 percent of job seekers consider a workplace’s diversity when contemplating a job offer. Furthermore, it states that 61 percent of women specifically evaluate the gender diversity of a prospective company’s leadership too.
This attracts highly qualified individuals, but a diverse workplace also allows varied perspectives to be presented. According to Inc, when more ideas and views are exchanged, better decisions can be reached, which can ultimately increase financial gains. While these positive outcomes from a gender-diverse company will benefit the company, increased productivity is another outcome that can directly increase the bottom line.
Gender Diverse Companies Outperform their Competitors Financially
An increase in psychological security, highly qualified talent, and fast problem solving naturally has effects on a company’s bottom line, which is why many companies have prioritized their commitment to gender diversity in the past ten years, according to a 2020 report by McKinsey & Company. A McKinsey & Company study found that companies in the top quartile of gender diversity were 25% more likely to outperform their peers when their executives were gender diverse and 28% when the company had gender-diverse boards.
Furthermore, an earlier report indicated that diverse companies are up to 15 percent more likely to be more profitable. ClearCompany even found that teams with gender equality make 41 percent more revenue. According to the McKinsey & Company report, leadership teams that include women are 21 percent more likely to achieve higher profitability. GDP could be increased by $28 trillion if women were more often included worldwide.
Female Leaders Outperform their Male Peers on Key Skills
Though men and women possess important characteristics such as experience and knowledge that are vital to success in a leadership role, the soft skills of women—who perform better than men in 11 of 12 key areas of emotional intelligence—are now viewed as equally, if not more, important. The results of women’s mastery of soft skills include an increased affinity for networking, more collaboration, better verbal and written communication, and even critical thinking. Components of professionalism such as increased motivation and work ethic are also associated with emotional intelligence. Of course, all of these qualities are beneficial to high-ranking company leaders.
These skills, workplace readiness, and the belief that women are more ethical and honest than men, as found in the Women and Leadership survey conducted by Pew Research Center, make women powerful leaders for companies. In turn, employees thrive and perform better. Per Inc, the qualitative and quantitative achievements under female leaders allow for “sustainable growth.”
