
Last week I was reading the 2018 World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report. If we continue to make progress at the same pace, the gap for economic opportunity (i.e. gender parity in the workplace) will close in 167 years in Canada and the US. For the world as a whole it’s 202 years. Yikes! That’s a LONG time.
When I first started learning about this I was overwhelmed, I didn’t know where to start and I didn’t think I could make a difference. I got curious and started to learn more about the reasons why progress is happening so slowly. I believe that knowledge is power. You need to know where you are before you can actually do something about it. You need to understand the baseline before you can really change anything.
HERE’S THE BAD NEWS
Less than 1% of corporate procurement goes to women-led businesses. This stat is from SheEO, if you haven’t already heard about them, you should. They are an amazing organization that is making the world a better place by investing in women led businesses.
Corporate training and consulting is considered procurement – it’s a business buying services from another business. I am a very small business, but I do sell my services to large companies, so this is my playground. This also means that 99% of the available work in my industry is being done by male-led businesses.
On today’s episode, I’m sharing my observations of my own industry which is coaching, corporate training and consulting. I’m also sharing some ideas on what you can do about this, regardless of your gender.