“Empowerment Gap” Between Men and Women at Work During Ongoing Labor Shortage

Earlier this year we asked members of the Informed Public how the nationwide labor shortage had affected them, and found that 45% of the Employed Informed Public say they feel more empowered to ask for something they want in their own work situation as a result of that labor shortage. However, that same data also revealed an “empowerment gap” between men and women in the workforce: while 50% of working men in our survey report feeling more empowered to ask for something they want in their own work situation as a result of the ongoing nationwide labor shortage, only 38% of working women say the same. This empowerment gap now adds yet another example to the list of disparities between working men and women with which corporate America must wrestle – the gender pay gap, the significant reduction in women’s workforce participation during the pandemic, and the lack of women in the c-suite – to name just a few.