Fifteen months after the Weinstein Effect helped kick off the #TimesUp movement, where do we stand? It’s hard to imagine too many who haven’t been affected by the movement attempting to out sexual harassment, especially in the workplace, but how have we been affected? Everyone is certainly more careful what they say and do, surely, but have we gotten any closer to the kind of deeper understanding we need to untangle the thatch of issues that root this problem with such complexity to the bedrock of human society? Or is much of the reaction simple lip service? We asked employees across the U.S., “Do you think the #TimesUp movement will result in progress in relations between men and women in the workplace?”
This information comes via the latest reading of an ongoing study by Comparably. Over 1,000 employees responded to the question.
41% of women don’t think #TimesUp will lead to progress in relations between men and women in the workplace.46% of men responded similarly. On that bright side, that does mean more than half of all respondents feel that the movement WILL lead to progress between the sexes in terms of the workforce.
Hispanic/Latino and Asian/Pacific Islander respondents are much more confident than the above average for all workers, with more than two-thirds of each ethnic group convinced that #TimesUp will lead to positive change.African-American responses were also ber when isolated than the average for all respondents. Caucasians were a percentage point lower than overall men on the questions.
Gen-Z and Millennial respondents are naturally more confident that the movement will lead to progress for women in the workplace.Idealism and optimism tend to be youthful traits, with a more cautious cynicism taking over as we age and experience more of life. We can see this progression playing out on the below graph, where a sense of optimism about #TimesUp begins to drop as age increases, hitting bottom with the 46-50 age group. Mindsets do seem to improve from there, with respondents from 51-65 more enthused about what #TimesUp can achieve.
Those whose highest level of education was an Associate’s Degree are notably more confident in the value of the movement than any other age group.Those holding a Master’s responded at a level poised just between the responses of those with just a highschool degree and those who report having taken in at least some college.
Broken down by work experience, we see a similar downward trend as we did with age.As work experience accumulates, respondents were more cautious about believing that #TimesUp could solve deep issues of inequality in the U.S. workplace.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents from Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and San Francisco are very confident that #TimesUp will make the workplace more fair for women.Conversely, less than half of the employees in Houston and Seattle felt similarly.
Men in certain departments – Admin, Business Development, Customer Support, Design, HR, Marketing, and the Executive Suite – are more confident than women in the movement’s worthiness.The biggest discrepancies are in Business Development, where men are 16% more confident in the movement; Finance, where women are 15% more confident; IT, where women are 18% more confident; and Legal, where female employees were 17% more confident that #TimesUp would help to level the playing field.
Latest reading as of April 19.
