Women first outpaced men in college graduation in the 1990s, and the gap has only increased since then, with women making up 60 percent of the college student population nationwide in the 2021-22 school year, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
But against these educational achievements, women are still meeting obstacles in the workplace, and 37 percent said they experienced career dissatisfaction in a new Robert Half survey. That was compared with 32 percent of men surveyed.
“Unfortunately, the workplace wasn’t exactly designed with women’s needs in mind,” Ally Nathaniel, owner at Soul Staffing Solutions, told Newsweek. “It was built by men, for men, and still largely operates under those same standards, which don’t always align with what women require.”
Today’s work systems still rely on the “old ways” of doing things, and that includes women being left out of bathroom and golf conversations while being expected to work harder and longer to prove themselves for every opportunity, experts say.
On top of this, women still shoulder the bulk of care-giving responsibilities at home, Nathaniel said. Spending significantly more time doing unpaid domestic work like cooking, cleaning and childcare, it’s more likely that their paid career work will lead to burnout and frustration.
This is especially true when workplaces lack flexible policies.
“Without flexible work arrangements, such as remote options, it can leave women feeling undervalued and unheard,” Nathaniel said. “And let’s not forget the imbalance in leadership positions, where men tend to dominate, creating this metaphorical glass ceiling that women struggle to break through.”