Physical, mental health, and financial security top concerns for women: Deloitte report

While there has been progress for women in the workplace in the recent past, some factors have worsened in the last year, according to Women @ Work: A Global Outlook report by Deloitte.

The report is based on a survey of 5,000 women across 10 countries, including 500 in India across age groups, employment status, sectors, and seniority.

Concerns about mental health and flexibility

The survey points out that women in India experienced fewer non-inclusive behaviours in 2023 than in 2022. The instance fell by almost 10 percentage points to 48%. Among those who did experience such behaviours, reporting of microaggressions has more than doubled.

The most experienced non-inclusive behaviour,women indicated was being interrupted or talked over during meetings. The survey saw a sharp drop in women reporting a lack of exposure to leaders, or feeling excluded from meetings, decisions, and informal interactions.

While levels of stress and burnout continue to be high globally and in India, it’s encouraging that in India, the youngest segment of the workforce is most comfortable talking about mental health in the workplace.

“It’s heartening to see younger generations take charge in having conversations that have traditionally been a taboo. While top-down interventions and role-model behaviour are important to support mental health, organisations should leverage on this generation to establish strong peer-to-peer networks of mental health champions," Saraswathi Kasturirangan, Chief Happiness Officer, Deloitte India said.

Women are also reporting better hybrid working experiences than last year. However, more women in India working in hybrid environments are also reporting a lack of predictability (28% now vs 15% in 2022) and flexibility (32% now vs 13% in 2022), as well as clarity around their employer’s expectations compared to last year.

The proportion of respondents who say that they are expected to go into their workplace despite messaging about flexibility and it being their choice has jumped from 10% in 2022 to 36% now.

“Organisations need to address this flexibility, predictability and clarity deficit for sure, as this can adversely affect employee engagement and retention,” added Saraswathi.

Responsibility of childcare and household tasks

Although the global average findings are similar, a higher share of women in India report having to shoulder the primary responsibility for childcare and cleaning and other domestic tasks (59% and 48% resp. in India vs. 46% and 42% globally). The share of households where a load of childcare is equally split is much higher globally (34%) than in India (15%).

Even among women who are primary or equal breadwinners in the household (globally), 40% (the single largest section) are still primary caregivers for children and 35% are still responsible for cleaning and other domestic tasks.

Time to break the silence

Many of the surveyed working women are experiencing health challenges related to menstruation and menopause. Among them, more than 33% report said they work through pain or symptoms related to menstruation and 18% work through symptoms related to menopause. Approximately, a quarter of women took time off for these reasons without disclosing it. While 26% said they did disclose menopause as a reason for taking time off and received support from their employer, only 13% of those who did the same during menstruation agreed.

Working with gender equality leaders

This is the third year Deloitte’s research has identified a group of “Gender Equality Leaders,” organisations that, according to the women surveyed, have created genuinely inclusive cultures that support their careers, work/life balance, and foster inclusion. Women who work for Gender Equality Leaders are more engaged and have higher levels of well-being and job satisfaction.

According to the survey, women who work with Gender Equality Leaders are five times likelier to recommend their organisations to friends or family as a great place to work, than those who work for lagging organisations.

“This statistic goes to show that being an inclusive and supportive organisation has merits that go much deeper than just optics. They have a visible positive effect on talent attraction, engagement, and retention," Saraswathi shared.