The Challenges of Being a Woman in the Workplace

There have been strides taken in the past few decades to make the workplace a more equal and just environment, where everyone has the same opportunities regardless of factors such as gender. In present time, the approach taken by most organisations is one of ‘gender neutrality’, where equality is the norm and gender differences aren’t acknowledged or addressed directly. However, in taking a closer look into this approach, it is possible to identify how such an attitude could harm, instead of aid, women in the workforce. By being neutral about gender in the workplace, an organisation simply ignores the reality of people's lives – where women take on the brunt of the housework and the parenting and have different biological functions, such as menstruation and menopause.

By making policy of ignoring the work-related risks to women, these professionals don’t receive the resources needed to thrive in the workforce or outside of it. Therefore, it is important that organisations and their leaders are informed of the challenges women face, so they are able to better develop and implement policy to make the workplace a more equal one, where everyone can thrive regardless of gender.

• Lack of Support and Mentorship

Women in the workplace receive less career support in general in comparison to their male counterparts, despite showing as much commitment and dedication to their careers as men. Specifically, in either entry or senior positions, women are less likely to be sponsored and supported to develop their professional careers which has a substantial impact on career outcomes. The type of sponsorship that a senior member can provide a professional, even when not in an official capacity, by advocating for them, giving them projects aligned with their goals, advice on how to best achieve them and leadership training, is significant, and women receive that type of support significantly less often along their professional careers. This in turn affects women’s aspirations to seek promotions and more senior roles in their organisations, on top of the already lower chances for promotion for women that already exists in the workplace. Therefore, women continue to be underrepresented in the workplace hierarchy, especially in senior leadership, despite making up nearly 50% of the workforce.

• Gender Gap and Discrimination

Despite the strides taken to make the workplace a safe and equal environment, with laws and policies developed, woman today still face both subtle and overt discrimination while at work. Based on stereotypes and social norms, women in the workplace face discrimination in domains such as leadership, as mentioned previously, that consists in a position traditionally associated with 'masculine traits’, woman are considered less desirable candidates, facing more scrutiny and criticism when in such a position in comparison to their male counterparts, especially if displaying attitudes associated with the opposite gender. Another domain consists of salary and specifically negotiation salary, where women generally receive lower pay-offs than men, partially explained by their more restrained approach to negotiation, compounding in significant pay disparities between genders in the same type of jobs and organisations. In the domain of interpersonal relations between colleagues, women still face discrimination by being subject to sexual harassment, which impacts woman much more frequently than men, being insulted, patronized or excluded because of their gender. In general, social attitudes and stereotypes are the basis for much of the discrimination that women face in the workplace, being blocked from advancing in their career in case that in the future they stop prioritizing their work, due to things like parenting.

• Higher work-family conflict

Conflict between the work and family domains is a concern for everyone, however there is a significant gender gap in the division of labor outside of the workplace, in favor of men. Women tend to report higher workloads than men when taking into consideration tasks from the workplace and home. Despite now being fully integrated into the workforce, women still take on most of the domestic work (caring for children, caring for relatives, housework, cooking) as if still part of a one-income household. This implies women most likely are the ones that must leave work to deal with other obligations – such as picking up a sick child from school. In general, and considering the hours of unpaid housework, women work longer hours each week in comparison with men, which in turn has repercussions on their mental and physical health, as well as their aspirations to develop their careers, needing to consider if such a thing is feasible when taking into account their other non-work obligations.

• Menstruation

Menstruation has a monthly impact on women’s lives, with numerous consequences for both their well-being and performance. Due to menstruation, women may have need to either miss days at work or persevere trough discomfort and pain to remain at work, where social norms regarding menstruation might prevent women from accessing infrastructure or support when needed – for example, if in a business meeting. These same social attitudes make it so there is a gap in support infrastructure in the workplace for women’s biological needs, including post-pregnancy or menopause.

• Pregnancy and Maternity

Women in the workplace, independent of planning to have children or not, tend to face social prejudices stemming from gendered stereotypes of parenting, where they are discouraged from pursuing higher positions in case they must leave work when they get pregnant. This same discrimination intensifies when the person is pregnant or post-partum, where women experience higher scrutiny of their performance, questioning of their abilities and exclusion from peers, potentially contributing to postpartum depression. A woman being postpartum implies a lot of changes to her roles, workplace dynamics and juggling of limited resources. When a woman returns post pregnancy to an environment not prepared and capable of supporting her, with peers and supervisors not informed and holding biased gender stereotypes, it can have a negative impact on that woman’s mental health as well as performance of her work, where they can also feel the need to prove themselves against colleagues biased views, expending more of their already limited resources.

• Menopause

In the same level as menstruation, perimenopause and menopause are cloaked in taboo and seen as a personal problem that should not be approached in the workplace. However, menopause has a real measurable impact, not only on women’s physical and mental health, but also on their performance, productivity, and ability to remain in the workplace. Professionals of 40 to 60 years old are in the most strategic period of their professional lives, where they have gained enough seniority to get promoted to the higher positions of an organisation, however this is also the period where the symptomatic phase of menopause starts affecting women, leading to many of them refusing promotions or even sometimes abandoning the workforce entirely. The various symptoms associated with perimenopause and menopause (brain fog, hot flushes, memory lapses, sleep difficulties, extreme tiredness, less ability to concentrate) directly affect women's abilities to perform their work and leads to higher risk of burnout. Without any support from their organisations, these women feel the need to reduce or completely stop their work hours at a critical moment of their professional journey, being a significant threat to equal representation in leadership.

Women’s experience in the workplace comes with challenges and risks that need to be dealt with or else it both negatively affects women’s health and wellbeing and has high costs for organisations. Taking a neutral stance is no longer viable; organisations must inform themselves and act before they lose some of their best talent to poor support and infrastructure.

References 

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European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. (2023, May 30). Women at Work: An Introduction. OSHwiki. https://oshwiki.osha.europa.eu/en/themes/women-work-introduction

Equal Rights Advocates (2023, May 30). Gender Discrimination at Work. https://www.equalrights.org/issue/economic-workplace-equality/discrimination-at-work/

Krivkovich, A., Goldstein, D. & McConnell, M. (2025, December 9). Women in the Workplace 2025. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/women-in-the-workplace#/

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