The old rules of the workplace aren't working. At least not for women

Despite clear gains by women in so many aspects of society over the decades, their progress in the workplace seems to have stalled. It is as easy to find a man named John walking the corridors of American power as it is to find a woman.

The number of female chief executives in Fortune 500 companies is 5 per cent and has actually declined — by 25 per cent — over the past year. In Britain, a study by the British Equality and Human Rights Commission found that a third of employers still think it’s O.K. to ask a woman during a job interview if she plans to have children. It’s not.

Women receive the majority of college degrees in the United States — and more advanced degrees — and yet they still must work four extra months to earn what their white male colleagues earned the year before, according to United States census data. When those numbers are segmented by race, it’s clear: Women of colour must work even longer.

And then, of course, there is the rise of the #MeToo movement, which revealed as never before the sexual pressure many women face in the workplace. At least one study has found that 81 per cent of women say they have experienced some form of sexual harassment.

Economists have long contended that there is a clear financial case for gender equality: Companies are more profitable, more collaborative and more inclusive when they hire women. True gender equality, research from McKinsey & Company has shown, would increase the gross national product in the United States by 26 per cent.

What is it that seems to stand in the way of greater strides by women in the workplace?

At the New Rules Summit in Brooklyn last week, The New York Times gathered 250 of the boldest, most powerful, most successful leaders across business, politics and culture to consider that question. 

We asked them to explore some of the challenges women face and to come up with practical recommendations for change that businesses, policymakers and even individuals could enact. Although The Times convened the event, we left the hard work of generating the recommendations to our guests. This section is the result:  a playbook for change.
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