One is the loneliest number

January 2019 One is the loneliest number Put an end to the costly isolation experienced by many women by clustering them on teams and improving the promotion process. Chances are, most people have experienced an “only” moment. Ours included being the only Jewish kid in the class as The Merchant of Venice was being discussed and plans for Christmas reviewed, and being the only woman and person of color in a room full of older men and about to tell the group that they needed to shift their strategy. Kevin Sneader is All of these experiences brought with them anxiety, pressure, and a sense the global managing of being on the spot: if we said or did the wrong thing, stereotypes would partner of McKinsey & Company and is get reinforced or prejudices confirmed. Other people, we recognize, based in McKinsey’s experience far worse. Hong Kong office. For women, being an “only” in the workplace is endemic. Twenty percent of the women in our latest Women in the Workplace report said they were commonly the only person of their gender in the room or one of very few. The figure is far higher in some sectors such as technology and engineering. For women of color, that number rose to 45 percent. For men, it was just 7 percent. Lareina Yee is a These statistics, from a study of 64,000 employees and 279 companies senior partner in in North America, are a sobering gauge of how frustratingly slow progress the San Francisco is toward gender equality in most companies. In the past five years, the office and serves proportion of white-collar women joining companies has risen steadily as McKinsey’s to reach near parity with men. But female representation still diminishes chief inclusion and diversity officer. along the corporate pipeline, and in the C-suite it is stuck at one in five. The more encouraging news is that those same statistics point to a potentially forceful way to break through: say no to “onliness.” We know women are more likely to experience discrimination in the workplace than men. But the study shows the odds are higher still when women find themselves alone in a group of men (exhibit). They are far more likely than others to have their judgment questioned than women working in a more balanced environment (49 percent versus 32 percent), to be mistaken for someone more junior (35 percent versus 15 percent), and to be subjected to unprofessional and demeaning remarks (24 percent versus 14 percent). If they are treated like this, no wonder they get overlooked for promotion.