This post is meant to spark a conversation – I am genuinely seeking help on how to build a gender neutral workplace
This women’s day, I shared stats about women representation at nearbuy.com – a piece that went “mini-viral”
Share of women: 34%
Share of women in tech: 29%
Impressive, I assume
However, here is the reality
This month, 3 women colleagues – great at what they do, had to leave because of a change in their personal situation (got married in a different city or husband is moving to a new city).
In each of the situations, they wanted to continue working with nearbuy – and we tried to figure out options (remote work etc) but couldnt come up with any elegant situation that didnt harm work or their ability to grow.
Early this year, we lost 2 more colleagues to similar circumstances
And I know (as of today) of 3 more such cases before the end of the year
We lost 8 women colleagues, extremely capable professionals, because they got married or their husband moved cities
In 10 years I have encountered only 1 case of a male professional leaving their workplace because of his partner.
How am I supposed to deal with this?
I needed suggestions from the audience – how do I build a gender-balanced workplace in light of the above situation?
PS: Dont need to hear “this is the reality” – I am not looking for validation. I am looking for ideas