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No equality at work without equality at home

Earlier this month, our Women in the Workplace report showcased that women hold far more power across corporate America than ever before: 29% of the C-suite is composed of women today, up from 17% in 2015.

But no matter how high women climb on the corporate ladder, inequities persist at home: today, roughly 4 in 10 women with partners say they are responsible for most or all of the housework—the same as in 2016. And senior-level women with partners are over four times more likely than men in the same situation to do more housework.

Bar chart showing housework distribution by gender (2016 & 2024). In 2024, 39% of women handle most/all housework vs. 11% of men. 57% of women share equally vs. 75% of men. Source: LeanIn.Org & McKinsey, 2024.

“We have a woman running for president and more women in leadership positions, yet we still have millions of working women who need more support to excel in their career aspirations,” said one woman who is a senior leader at a nonprofit. “In a society where we talk about the mental load and unequal share of parenting duties much more often, women are still responsible for most of the household duties.”

Companies have no control over how their employees divvy up responsibilities on the home front. And yet, countless interviews with women prove that we can’t get to equality in the workplace without also addressing the uneven distribution of labor at home. Read more here in an article I wrote on the topic for Motherly.

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Women in the Workplace report

The largest study on the state of women in corporate America.

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