Workplace Flexibility Creates New Challenges for Women in Retirement Field

What You Need to Know

Significant strides have been made to accommodate the needs of caregivers in the workplace, but many professionals are still feeling burned out.
Millennial women and members of Gen Z seem to be feeling the most pressure to balance work and life.
Many female retirement professionals say their career growth has slowed with expanded caregiving responsibilities.

While many female professionals in the retirement industry appreciate the expanded flexibility brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is also widespread concern about the emergence of a new “do-it-all” culture that will harm caregivers.

In fact, according to a new survey published by WIPN, there’s a chance changes being made in the workplace are actually supporting a problematic status quo — one where women are still primarily responsible for domestic caregiving while also facing mounting pressure to succeed professionally and financially support their families.

This is among the headline findings of WIPN’s latest retirement industry poll, which compiles quantitative and qualitative feedback from more than 160 of the organization’s female members.

On the positive side, some seven in 10 surveyed WIPN members who are also caregivers say they now have much-needed autonomy over their time at work — and that they have options for remote work and flexible schedules.

Other key findings show that, though American caretaking benefits remain well below levels offered in many other developed countries, they have expanded significantly in recent years and the female WIPN members surveyed are generally happy with their benefits.

Still, according to the survey, it will be important for firm leaders to continue to update and evolve their approach to supporting caregivers if they hope to address the clear and pressing gender gap that exists at the leadership level across the financial services landscape.

WIPN and Its Mission

“WIPN” is shorthand for the advocacy organization known as “WE Inspire. Promote. Network.” The current moniker was adopted a little more than two years ago, when the former Women in Pensions Network (WiPN) announced an ambitious rebranding.

At that time, WIPN adopted a new mission statement that seeks to more explicitly include men, people of color and other groups in the shared and critically important mission of improving diverse representation in the ranks and leadership levels of retirement-focused financial services companies.

Among WIPN’s prior research projects is a cutting analysis showing a lack of mentoring and sponsorship opportunities is a particular concern among women of color working in the retirement industry today. According to WIPN’s research, almost a quarter of women of color cite the lack of a mentor/sponsor as a major barrier to career growth.

Women of color who do not have a mentor say that this is often due to an inability to find one who is a good fit. Additionally, the data shows that a significantly higher proportion of women of color feel excluded from formal and informal networks at work than their white counterparts.

WIPN’s leaders say these sentiments are slowly improving, but they are clearly not just home-spun. Rather, they rather stem from the deeply embedded cultures of many workplaces, where employers’ actions often do not align with their stated values, even when formal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts exist.

Positive Survey Findings

WIPN’s new survey seeks to offer additional insights about whether emerging post-pandemic norms are inadvertently trading one set of challenges for another.

As the analysis shows, in the post-pandemic era, many retirement industry workplaces have more flexibility than ever, including the option to do some work remotely or to adjust schedules to accommodate family responsibilities.

On its face, this is a good thing. Two-thirds of the WIPN members surveyed are caregivers of children, aging parents or ailing spouses and partners. Overall, about a third of these women say they are the primary caregiver in their home, while just 5% say their partner is the primary caregiver. The rest say they share caregiving responsibilities with a partner.

According to WIPN, this is one area where continued cultural shifts are striking. That is, Gen Z and millennial respondents were much more likely to say they shared caregiving with their partner compared to baby boomers and silent generation peers.

One clear positive note shared by WIPN members is that the landscape is also changing in terms of caregiving leave and other benefits at employers. Among caregivers, about two-thirds say they are happy with the leave their company provides for caregiving, and nearly all (94%) of women say their employers are “extremely” or “somewhat” supportive of caregivers in general.

The survey shows the median maternity leave offered in the retirement industry today is 12 weeks, which is seen as satisfactory among 69% of the polled WIPN members. While the median allotment of parental leave is half that amount, this is seen as satisfactory by a similar percentage (66%), as is the three-week allotment at the median for sick leave for caregiving.