80% of women managers consider that they have had to make some type of sacrifice or resignation to develop their professional career and, among them, almost half (42%) affirm that they have delayed or given up on motherhood thus. These are some of the conclusions revealed by the seventh edition of the report ‘Esade Gender Monitor’, corresponding to 2023, after interviewing more than 1,000 professional women and managers about gender balance in their companies. Most of the women surveyed confessed to having had to accept resignations related to their mental health and wellness (67,2%), leisure and free time (65.6%) and their family relationships (48,7%).
Although practically all of them (92%) believe that professionals who are currently 30 years of age or younger will have to continue making resignations, there is a consensus that sacrifices will tend to be less. And this, for two reasons: because of the relative advances in companies in terms of gender balance and because it can be seen in the new profile of these younger professional women. less tolerance for inequality (74.5%) and a higher level of confidence in their potential (64.5%).
According to Eugenia Bieto, director and co-author of the Esade Gender Monitor’, “the directives consulted believe that the generations of professional women under 30 prioritize the balance between their personal, family and professional lives more than they do; they know their rights better as individuals and as employees; they demand more from the company in this matter, and develop greater activism related to gender equality”. This does not prevent, however, that they perceive in them a lower level of professional ambition than their predecessors, points out Bieto.
Promotion and salaries
For the most part, the directives surveyed for this study are of a between 40 and 59 years (94% of them), work for others (90%), in companies with more than 250 workers (81%) and have two children or more (80%). In addition, 76% of these directives combine face-to-face tasks and teleworking.
85.4% of the directives consulted perceive that in Spain there is unequal treatment in favor of man When it comes to pointing out the inequalities in their environment, those consulted underline that during the last year the most perceived have been in the promotion (43.1%), in the task visibility (40.5%) and in the salary (39.9%). In general, they consider that to end barriers and inequalities, two types of measures would be useful that do not occur to the extent that they should: aid for reconciliation and the fees.
Dues
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In the specific case of the dues, six out of ten consulted declare themselves in favor. A volume that, according to Patricia Cauqui, co-author of the study and academic director of the ‘Gender Balance and D&I’ programs at Esade, “shows an important change in opinion as a result of the passage of time. The answer to this question a few years ago would have been that eight out of ten women were against quotas. Today, 28% are still against it, but there are and 51.2% that demands them as a temporary measure that shortens the path towards equal opportunities”.
Although there has been a significant change among those consulted in terms of their opinion about the effectiveness of quotas, the change they most seem to want (according to the social measures they prioritize) is that of normalization of what a person can do, regardless of their gender. Thus, the most voted measure (with 8.57 on a 0-10 scale) is the visibility of female references in the media and in the cultural field followed by the standardization of care in the private sphere by both members of the couple (8.47).