As the pandemic reaches its 1 year milestone in the U.S., women in the workplace are holding on to feelings of career ambition (albeit declining), despite experiencing many obstacles. From career setbacks to infrequent career growth conversations, most women (and Americans overall) find that the pandemic has made things worse for women in the workplace.
Ambition still high overall, yet women of color experience large drops in ambition.
- Shares of Black and Hispanic women who consider themselves “very ambitious” dropped by over 20 points from last year (75% to 54% among Black women)
- Similarly, Latinas went from 65% "very ambitious" down to 42%.
Flexible work arrangements are still seen as a liability to professional advancement.
Even with much of the workforce still functioning under some version of a flexible work arrangement, womens’ concerns that taking advantage of flexible work arrangements will negatively impact their career growth have only subsided marginally from last year.
- From 45% to 39%, many women are still concerned that flexibility comes at a professional cost.
- Nearly half of women of color are still concerned (54% among Black women, 49% among Latinas) compared to just 33% of white women.
Pandemic-era setbacks and limited career growth options contribute to making the workplace problematic for women.
- Majorities say that the pandemic has made things worse for women in the workplace (59% overall, 66% of women with and without children agree).
- Less than one-third of women today are “very satisfied” with the amount of career growth available to them at their current job.
- Fully 22% of women, both with AND without children, have experienced a setback in their career advancement over the past 12 months.
Half the workforce is feeling burned out all or some of the time.
Over half (53%) of women say their mental health suffers to the point of burnout because of their jobs, all or some of the time. This is true for women with and without kids, white women, and women of color alike. However, the main reasons for burnout differ by race.
- The number one cited reason for Black women is worry about finances (27%).
- Top cited for white women is difficulty balancing work and family obligations (23%).
Read more about our polling methodology here.
Click through all the results in the interactive toplines below:
