Ensuring Women's Career Growth in a New Work Environment

BY Angelica Frey | April 01, 2022

Back when Ebony Travis was an administrative assistant at Boston Scientific, she recalls that someone saw something in her that she did not see in herself. “It took people encouraging me, saying it was something there. If somebody sees something in you, you pause and think: What is it? Do I want something bigger and better? Am I passionate about it?”

Travis found her way. “I got a BA and MBA while working for this organization, using the tuition reimbursement,” she said.  She has now been with Boston Scientific for 25 years, and is the company’s director of global HR & EEO policy.

Travis and three other HR leaders spoke this week in a From Day One webinar titled “Ensuring Women’s Career Growth in the New Work Environment,” moderated by journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, which focused on responding to the vast exodus of women from the workforce during the pandemic.

Especially for women, finding an advocate for one’s own professional growth has been crucial. “I had great people in my life. I remember my career starting in HR. A practicing administrator, she saw something in me, a practice secretary, that I didn't see in myself,” echoed Donna Carter, the director of diversity and inclusion at Catalent, a health-technology company. Robin Malmanger, talent acquisition director at OneDigital, a health-care and employee-benefits company, believes in a proactive approach in the matter. She regularly tells her daughter, “You can do hard things.”

Since corporations lost millions of women leaders–and potential leaders–during the disruption of the last two years, employers are now called to respond to this specific type of brain drain by creating a culture of intentional balance and inclusivity in the workplace. “In the first year of the pandemic alone, 54 million women around the world left the workforce, almost 90% of whom exited the labor force completely,” reported Harvard Business Review. So what is happening on an institutional level?

Fixing Long-standing Damage

Travis has noticed that changes are underway. “With our organization, Boston Scientific, we’re doing the right thing, increasing women in leadership," she said. “I can see that in our EEO reporting.” And while she hesitates to make industry-wide statements, she is aware of larger shifts, citing McKinsey & Company’s annual Women in the Workplace survey.

Speaking on career growth, top row from left: Shauna Cour of Ovia Health and Robin Malmanger of OneDigital. Middle row: moderator Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, Sarah Waldman of Dentsply Sirona and Ebony Travis of Boston Scientific. Bottom: Denise Carter of Catalent (Image by From Day One)

Good will on a case-by-case basis is helpful, to be sure. “When I was working for an employer who gave me 20 weeks maternity leave, the goodwill and allegiance was huge,” recalled Shauna Cour, the VP of employer sales at Ovia Health, a family health-benefits platform. “Truth is, though, you have to culturally change your organization. If you don’t train managers and leaders to be better, then nothing else matters.”

Growing pains are to be expected as formerly neglected subjects come to the forefront. Carter used her experience in DEI to highlight a wider issue: “There has to be the ability to have difficult conversations and provide a safe environment,” she said. “I talked to a lot of white males who are frightened, as they don’t really know what to say, unsure whether they should join the conversation.”

Addressing the Caregiver Issue

Women as caregivers have been a historically underserved demographic, not only when it comes to parental responsibilities, but also the care of elderly parents or spouses with health issues. “We’re caring for a lot of people. Most people go through a season where they’re pulled in multiple directions,” Malmanger pointed out.

Improvement in support is coming, albeit in pockets. “It’s something that I realized I had to demand,” said Sarah Waltman, the VP of global talent management and organizational development at the dental-products maker Dentsply Sirona. “The first years as a mom were hard. I resented that period of my life,” she said, citing the extra fees she had to pay for late pick-up at day care and sometimes seeing her children only at daybreak and bedtime.

Cour had a similar experience, often seeing her kids for just one hour at night. Yet when she worked at Microsoft, she became a guinea pig for their flexible-work pilot program. “Once I experienced that, it was life-changing,” she said. “That schedule changed my life.” Now, at Ovia, she grants flexible-work schedules when employees ask for them. She figures that a less-stressed employee who can honor their care-giving responsibilities is good for the company too, as their efficiency and productivity goes up.

Facing Hindrances in Career Opportunities

Carter fully believes in internal development of employees. “We’re in pharma, so we have roles that naturally lend themselves more to sponsorship. It’s more than just having or being an ally. We have the obligation to lead women and push them up.” And should you be in the position to have a female leader, it behooves you to listen to them. “Take their advice, don’t just let it go in one ear, out the other. If you’re fortunate enough to be in that relationship, take advantage,” she said. She advocates for truth over bland reinforcement. “If I do not tell an employee the truth because I don’t want to have a conversation, I am doing a disservice to them.”

Again, managers need to have the right attitude about change. “A big part of it is fear of losing a lot of control,” said Waltman. “There are not a lot of one-size-fits-all options any longer. So for us, a lot of the things that we’re doing are more around helping the individual have the conversations with their manager and training the manager and the individual people.”

Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Milan and Brooklyn.

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