America’s Working Women Revolution

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Are American women driving a workforce revolution?

Michelle McQuaid and Sara Horowitz say yes. They come to this conclusion, however, from decidedly different perspectives, using starkly different data. This causes me to wonder whether this revolution is good news, bad news, something in-between, or even ugly news for American women, families, and the U.S. economy.

McQuaid: Traditional Workplaces

McQuaid is a best-selling author and “workplace wellbeing teacher.” In The Workplace Revolution Women Are Leading , she writes that because more traditional businesses and organizations are taking a strengths-based approach, American women are flourishing.

This ‘strengths’ approach refers to Gallup Research’s “employee engagement” measures, considered to be a hallmark indicator of business success. McQuaid points to the following:

• 70% of women believe that building on their strengths is the key to success at work, compared to 60% of men.
• 94% of women say they can name their top five strengths, compared to 90% of men.
• 52% of women report they are using their strengths each day at work, compared to 46% of men.

Citing the 2015 Strengths At Work Survey , an analysis of an independent survey commissioned of 1,000 full-time and part-time employees in February 2015, McQuaid concludes:

“…there is something about this [strengths] approach that gives women the permission to satisfy their deep craving for authenticity at the office. It allows them to value the often dismissed “softer” strengths they bring to organizations – like kindness, social intelligence and god forbid love – and gives them the opportunity to explore how to do more of this in their work.”

Horowitz: Freelancers

Horowitz, the founder and executive director of the Freelancers Union, focuses on the 53 million Americans who are independent workers (more than one-third of the U.S. workforce today). Based upon a study last year, data show that a clear majority of full-time freelancers–53%–are women, a revolution of a different kind.

In her Why Are More Women Freelancing Than Men , Horowitz writes, “I think most women would agree that the traditional work structure just isn’t working well for them–the 40-plus-hour work weeks, the clubby meetings, the yawning disparities in pay and opportunities.” And, she describes how American women live their working lives in stages:

“Even more than our male counterparts, our lives play out in stages that don’t fit well with a corporate world dominated by men. By our 30s, many women are starting families and struggling with taking time away from the office. By our forties, we’re often hitting the glass ceiling in terms of pay and promotions. By our fifties and sixties, unfortunately, we’re often being ignored altogether.”

Death of 9 to 5 Across Class Lines

“Life isn’t nine to five anymore,” Ivanka Trump tells Fortune . The entrepreneur and daughter of Donald Trump goes on, “It is important to cultivate and create an environment that is conducive to multidimensional women who have families and lives outside of the office and who are working 24 hours a day because they are bringing their work home with them.”

Obviously not your average working woman in America, Trump’s statement that women are working 24 hours a day rings an eerie chord across class lines.

Perhaps Maria Shriver’s A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back From the Brink report best completes the picture of America’s working women? The infographic below offers key insights.

Revolution Results

If history informs us of anything, revolutions typically have far-reaching, unforeseeable impact. Often, revolutions produce winners and losers. Typically, during a revolution the results are uncertain. For American women, families, and our nation’s economy, that’s where I think our revolution stands today. What I do know for sure is this: 9 to 5 is definitely dead and working 24 hours a day is unsustainable.

Share your experience: Do you feel part of the American women’s workplace revolution? What do you predict the results will be?

Images: Revolution via https://www.popularresistance.org/; Workplace Revolution via workplace-revolution.com; Michelle McQuaid via michellemcquaid.com; Sara Horowitz via freelancers union.org; and women in poverty infographic via feministing.com.