By now, we hope you know CreativeLive as the champion of every creator’s right to live their dreams. Whether you use our classes to develop your side-hustle, start your own business, or to take inspiration for your full-time corporate job, CreativeLive will help you dream big. And as all creators know, dreaming big is full of challenges, grit and hard, hard work.
But hard work doesn’t pay equal dividends, especially for women wanting to advance their career. When you think about the future of your business, know this: despite increasing recognition of the importance of women in leadership, the gender gap continues to grow.
The problem is rampant. Women are underrepresented in government. Women earn less than men for the exact same job. Women suffer from discrimination at school, in the workplace, and in their daily lives. A recent report by Training Magazine, Inc. found the situation for women of color even worse: they represent 19% of the total U.S. population but only 3% of C-suite roles.
And in the same breath, if you haven’t noticed the monumental cultural shift happening around gender equality, you’re not paying attention. More and more women are running for elected office—and winning. The #metoo movement is highlighting the persistent problem of sexual harassment and assault. A new generation of progressive, young professionals refuse to work in antiquated corporate environments where inclusion and diversity isn’t a top priority.
Companies want to be part of the solution, not the problem. But many organizations unknowingly perpetuate the gender gap by giving more time, energy, and resources to help men advance. In doing so, intentionally or not, businesses deny women opportunities to gain critical leadership skills that are necessary for advancement — opportunities many men have always had access to.
We want to remind the entrepreneurs and creatives in our CreativeLive community that company culture is set from the top. And unfortunately, it’s mostly men at the top. That means progress for women is partially dependent on buy-in and sponsorship from an existing community of male leadership.
We implore these leaders to use their positions to take a stand on this specific issue of executive gender inequity. We implore them to make women their number one priority. Offering the same basic workplace trainings isn’t enough. Just talking about it isn’t enough. It’s time to stop pretending all things are equal. It’s time to start dedicating time, energy and resources to help women advance.
To learn how you or your business can take action, read CreativeLive’s “Ending the Cycle of Executive Inequality: How to ensure your company provides women equal access to leadership development.” This ebook explores the gender leadership gap and provides concrete actions companies can take to remove the barriers preventing women from equal leadership opportunities. We invite you to read on. And then we invite you to take action. As an entrepreneur. As a leader. As a creator.
Contributing writers Karlie Jessop is the General Manager and Meguire Heston leads Enterprise Marketing at CreativeLive. Follow them on Instagram @KJessop and @MeguireHeston and learn more about CreativeLive For Business at www.creativelive.com/enterprise.
