How Microaggressions Impact Inclusion

“Social norms that inhibit women’s representation in decision making deprive societies of the many benefits of women’s leadership and of diversity of perspectives, experiences, abilities, voices, and ideas,” according to the United Nations’ 2023 Gender Social Norms Index, which was released in June 2023.

Across both highly developed and developing nations, gender biases persist and continue to undercut women’s leadership potential, the survey found; for example, 43 percent of people think men make better business executives than women do. These biases can be hard to combat in the workplace, especially when non-inclusive behaviors such as harassment and microaggressions come into play.

While 2023 has shown some progress when it comes to women’s roles at work, the Women @ Work 2023: A Global Outlook report from Deloitte found that 51 percent of women said their stress levels were higher than they were a year ago, and 28 percent reported feeling burned out. These numbers mark moderate improvements from 2022, but nearly half of all women surveyed said they are still experiencing behavior that pushes them out of key leadership positions.