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Sexual harassment is as common today for women in the workplace as 5 years ago, study finds
Women in the U.S. now constitute almost 6 in 10 college graduates and half the labor market, yet many continue to experience bias and other headwinds in the workplace, including a rate of sexual harassment that hasn’t improved in five years, according to a new study from consulting firm McKinsey and advocacy group Lean In.
The groups’ “Women in the Workplace” report, which is marking its 10th year of publication, finds that while women in Corporate America have made some gains, there has also been a remarkable lack of progress on a number of fronts, from rates of early career promotion that have continued to lag men’s to widespread sexual harassment.
The research provides a sober assessment of the challenges that remain after years of efforts by women’s advocates, corporations and the #MeToo movement to improve the workplace for women. At the same time, a recent push against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives threatens to derail the progress women have made climbing the ladder.
“I would call it a mixed scorecard for Corporate America,” Rachel Thomas, the co-founder and CEO of Lean In, told CBS MoneyWatch. “The fact that there has been a decline in commitment to gender and racial diversity has been concerning — we need [corporations] to lean into the momentum, and they are at risk of stepping back.”
Recently, major companies including Ford Motor, Lowe’s and John Deere have retreated from diversity in the face of conservative criticism.
The new study found a growing gap between young men and young women when it comes to prioritizing gender and racial diversity, with only 4 in 10 men under 30 currently supporting these efforts, down from about half of young men in 2019. About 7 in 10 young women support prioritizing diversity, little changed from five years ago, the study found.
“There is a pushback in the zeitgeist about diversity equity and inclusion,” Thomas said.
Sexual harassment remains widespread
The findings also show that sexual harassment remains commonplace in Corporate America, with about 40% of working women experiencing such treatment during their careers, ranging from sexist jokes to having obscene comments directed toward them, the study found.
Women under 30 were just as likely to have experienced sexual harassment as women over 30, a finding that signals the issue hasn’t diminished in scale over the past several years, the study noted.
“We don’t see movement with young women in how frequently they describe experiences of sexual harassment in relation to their older peers,” Alexis Krivkovich, senior partner at McKinsey, told CBS MoneyWatch. “It’s incredibly troubling.”
Sexual harassment remains persistent despite the rise of the #MeTo movement in 2017, with a number of prominent women coming forward to disclose the abuse they had endured at work and demanding changes in the workplace. Still, only about half of women today express confidence that their employers would effectively deal with harassment if they reported it, little changed from 2018, the study noted.
“The fact that women are so concerned that if they reported it, it wouldn’t be effectively managed likely leads to a number of incidents not being accounted for,” Krivkovich said.
“Women have stayed ambitious”
Despite these obstacles, women have made gains entering corporate leadership roles, Krivkovich said. For instance, women now make up 29% of C-suite roles, or top executive positions such as chief executive or chief financial officer, up from 17% in 2015, when the Women in the Workplace report debuted.
“We know women have stayed ambitious over the last 10 years despite all the headwinds,” Thomas said.
But, Krivkovich added, “when we get under the hood, it’s clear those gains are really fragile.”
For one, women are still stumbling on the “broken rung,” or failing to get a promotion out of their entry-level jobs at the same rate as men, the study found. For every 100 men who were promoted to a manager role in 2024, 81 women were elevated — little changed from the 79 women who got a similar promotion in 2018, the study found.
Young women are most at risk of suffering from ageism, with older managers biased against them because they are seen as lacking experience, while young men are often judged by a different yardstick, Thomas and Krivkovich said.
“We know from social science research that we promote men on potential and women on prior experience,” Thomas said.
While corporations must make changes to ensure that women are given the same opportunities as men, such as by implementing blind resume reviews where the applicants’ genders or identities are hidden from managers, women can also take some steps to help themselves, Thomas and Krivkovich said.
“Don’t sit back and wait for things to unfold organically in terms of your sponsorship, your mentorship network, the presumption of your ambition and the opportunities that come your way,” Krivkovich said. “For all those things, you have to play a proactive role.”
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
