By Christie Garton
Equality for women in the workforce has officially taken center stage, and there is a lot of discussion around supporting women business leaders—definitely a win for the women’s workplace movement. But now it’s time to start focusing on the up-and-coming generation of young women professionals.
We all have a stake in providing young women access to valuable academic and professional experiences, which is not only beneficial to the next generation of female professionals, but also to the businesses that provide them. In fact, the companies with the greatest number of women leaders are also the companies that perform the best financially. In order to spark a wave of successful, capable female business leaders, we need to begin empowering them long before they step foot into the workplace.
Some of the necessary steps have already been set in motion by corporate America. Internships, mentoring programs, networking events, and scholarships help connect businesses with the future workforce. While decision makers have their hearts in the right place, sometimes they unknowingly create barriers within these programs, preventing potentially qualified young women from participating.
Thankfully, by rethinking the structure of the programs they offer and making a few slight improvements, companies can eliminate these barriers and make good programs even better.
Internships With Flexibility
Internships are beneficial for both students and businesses, creating a pipeline of future employees while helping develop leadership skills that are vital for young women. But to truly benefit your business and the next generation of young professionals, build flexibility into your internship programs. Be adaptable and incorporate the option to work virtually or offer some sort of payment to interns—whether that be paying for housing, offering a small stipend, or paying an hourly wage. Not all interns can afford to spend a few months living on their own in an expensive city. This barrier could limit the applicant field significantly and cause you to miss out on potentially qualified candidates.
By offering only unpaid/for-credit internships or denying the opportunity to work remotely, you limit the diversity of your applicants and your potential future employees. Diversity in gender, race, and socioeconomic standing helps bring new ideas, perspectives, and cultures to the table—a clear business benefit.
Role Models
Mentorship programs and networking events are a great way to connect with up-and-coming professionals on a more personal level, but they can easily be improved to better empower young women.
It’s incredibly important for young women to see other powerful, successful women in the workforce. If we’re going to encourage young women to demand a seat at the boardroom table once they enter the working world, we have to show them it’s possible, and what better way to do that then to spotlight your company’s outstanding female employees in some way.
Take some inspiration from organizations like Step Up Women’s Network that connect girls with real-life successful women—even for just one meeting. When organizing your next mentorship or networking event, focus the event on the women leaders currently in your organization and let them speak about their journeys. Seeing real, relatable women role models will show the next generation that their most ambitious dreams are possible.
Scholarships
Lack of access—to internships, to prominent colleges, to study abroad trips, and everything in between—is one of the biggest problems young women are currently facing. An increasing number of companies are beginning to see the value in providing access to opportunities for young women through scholarships—and now it’s time to take it a step further.
While offering scholarships that help with tuition is important, out-of-classroom experiences are just as valuable and just as costly. Get creative with the scholarships your business offers and lessen the usage restrictions.
For example, at my company UChic, we award up to $1,000 micro-grants to young women pursuing big dreams which could include anything from going to college, to taking on an internship or launching their first music video. Use your scholarships to help young women chase opportunities that expand their worldviews and get unique experiences–a huge value to your company when they enter the workforce in the future.
If companies are going to focus on empowering high school and college-aged girls with these programs (and they should), improvement needs to happen to ensure all young women have access to vital, life-changing opportunities. After all, the young women today may end up being your star CEO tomorrow.
The post Call to Action: It’s Time to Pave the Way for Young Women in Business appeared first on AllBusiness.com
The post Call to Action: It’s Time to Pave the Way for Young Women in Business appeared first on AllBusiness.com.
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