Supporting working women - a priority today and always

Rebecca Henderson, CEO & executive board member, Randstad Global Businesses

 IWD 2021

At Randstad, we believe that women play a critical role in establishing efficient labor markets that are essential to the betterment of society. It was incredibly encouraging to see, for instance, that American women held more jobs than men for the first time in a decade in early 2020, an important milestone in achieving true gender equality in the workforce. Unfortunately, that momentum has stalled as working women have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Working mothers have had to juggle their careers with caring for their families during the pandemic, and as a result, millions of working women have left the labor force, erasing decades of progress towards achieving equality at work.  

Randstad is passionate about advocating for gender equality and helping people and organizations realize their true potential, and we believe actively providing working women with opportunities for career advancement is a requirement in today’s environment. Randstad is extremely proud to have 66.7 percent of females in management positions in our organization, and we look forward to strengthening that number in the coming year. As a former working mother who wishes I had more support from my employer when my children were young, I call on all employers to step up and offer the resources that working mothers – and all women in their organizations – need to successfully progress in their careers.

Not only is it the right thing to do, but it is also imperative to our global economy. It is estimated that if the gender disparity which has been exacerbated by the coronavirus is not addressed, the global economy could lose $1 trillion in the next 10 years. We cannot afford to take this economic hit, or to lose the one in four women who are considering downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce altogether due to the pandemic.

As we approach a new, and critical year for working women, we choose to challenge all employers to step up and provide women with the resources they need to be able to continue to play the vital role that they do in the U.S. and global labor force every day.