Challenges of invisible gender discrimination

Conversations on Leading People: Invisible Work, Visible Impact About a year ago, I made a managerial misstep during the early stages of our return to the office (RTO). I was on a mission to rekindle my team’s sense of connection and remind us why we enjoyed working together. Plus, I was thrilled at the thought of reuniting with my team in person! However, a few days before a scheduled team gathering, and with my assistant unavailable, I suddenly remembered that I needed to coordinate the food and activities. Feeling the time pressure, I approached someone conveniently seated in my office, saying, "Hey, I totally forgot about it. Could you step in and organize this event?" With a subtle smile and a twinkle in her eye, she responded, "Daisy, you're always reminding us to balance the workload among the team. I'm swamped right now, and I'm pretty sure someone else with a lighter workload could take care of it." She was right! I sighed, thanked her, and mentally kicked myself for automatically turning to her just because she happened to be in front of me. To ensure fairness, trust, and credibility in the workplace, our actions must align with our stated values and principles. This memory came rushing back to me when I read S. Mitra Kalita's piece on TIME and Charter, "How to End the Unfairness of Invisible Work," where she delves into the harmful impact of unpaid, unacknowledged, and unregulated work, and how it disproportionately affects women and people of color. Here are some key takeaways: - Make it visible: Even though these tasks might not appear in a typical job description, responsibilities like providing emotional support, handling conflict, offering mentorship, and nurturing relationships are crucial elements of a healthy workplace and should be recognized. - Seek understanding: Begin with an emotional labor audit and follow it up by equitably redistributing the workload. - Reward the often-overlooked champions and networks shaping culture: Conduct pay equity gap audits, assess diversity across all levels, embrace salary transparency, and fairly compensate those who actively participate in committees and ERGs for their contributions. - Acknowledge the harm: Don't underestimate the impact of loneliness and job dissatisfaction. Imagine a workplace where we prevent burnout by unveiling the invisible labor that shapes culture and providing the autonomy to effectively manage the pressures of people-pleasing, workaholism, and relentless time constraints. We say "yes" when it aligns with our capacity, energy, and goals. Our "yeses" and contributions are recognized and rewarded. Moreover, we have the confidence and grace to respond as my team member did: "Thanks for thinking of me, but I'm currently deeply engaged in a critical project. Perhaps someone with a lighter workload could take this on?", without worrying about facing negative consequences. https://lnkd.in/eUqd6jiv

Behind every woman lies an invisible workload — an unspoken reality that is expected from us. Women are getting empowered. That's true. A lot of my female friends and classmates won't have been given the same education and opportunities even a decade back. We have entered the workforce and are working at par with men however it is still expected that we take the primary responsibility of the managing the house. This became evident when I was talking to my friend recently. He said that "My bhabi's are working but they still come home and cook meals. I expect my wife to do the same since it is the culture in my house." I asked him if he or his brothers contribute to household chores. He said "No, we don't get the time" Another friend of mine recently quit her job as her family advised her to take up work that had flexible hours and she could do from home. All because after marriage most in-laws expect their bahus to take care of the house so if she wanted to continue working that was her only option. It is because of these expectations and added workload women are not able to work to their full capabilities and sometimes even quit working altogether. We need men and families to step up and help women manage the house. The responsibility of household work should be of everyone living in the house. If we don't get rid of these gender roles then we are not creating a generation of Empowered Women but that of Exhausted Women with wasted potential. #empowerwomen #genderequality #linkedinforcreators #breaktheinvisibleworkload

When gender inequality hides in plain sight (until you call it out) We ran a 30-day Money Mindset Challenge at 73bit. (It was a playlist of 150 videos shared in a sheet) The rules were simple, but strict: ✅ Watch 5 short videos each day morning, noon, afternoon, evening and night ✅ Miss a day? Start over from Day 1 Why so intense? Because the science behind it works: Neuroplasticity. RAS (Reticular Activating System). Habit formation. We were training our minds to make money a daily priority. I shortlisted these videos after watching over 6,000 videos about money mindset, human psychology, personal development, and business in the last 8 years. Result? 💰Built a 12-month cash runway. 💰5X'd company profits. 💰Doubled my income. Many of our team members joined the challenge. But one story stood out. A husband and wife both joined. (Yes, both work at 73bit Limited) Same rules. Same setup. The husband completed it. The wife couldn't. Not because she lacked discipline. Not because she wasn't motivated. She simply didn't have the time. Six hours each day disappeared into unpaid labour involving cooking, cleaning and family care before she could even think about personal growth. She's educated. She's career-focused. But she was still carrying a second shift. That's what gender inequality looks like in 2025. It's not always loud. It hides in plain sight 🚫In the calendar, in the kitchen, in the invisible hours. On a coaching call, she blamed herself: "I just need more discipline… more determination… more dedication." But she didn't need motivation. She needed relief. The solution I proposed? Hire house help. For a fraction of their combined income, they could buy back 180 hours a month. Time for growth. Time for learning. Time for earning. For many women, that means literally buying time. The ROI speaks for itself: 2X income in just 2 years. If time is your barrier, solve it with money. The challenge proved one surprising outcome: When you create equality in time, You create equality in opportunity. Do you feel uncomfortable talking about gender inequality? --- ♻️ Repost to continue the action 

When I say Black, Latina and Indigenous women engineers are exhausted, many think I'm talking about the work or work-life balance. What I'm referring to are the barriers they encounter before they can even do their jobs. Follow me as I elaborate on 3 Barriers That Aren't in the Job Description (But Still Block Their Careers) : 1. Prove-it-again bias – Having to re-earn credibility that others are granted automatically 2. Exclusion from informal networks – Missing out on key opportunities, deals, or mentorship connections 3. Cultural taxation – Being expected to "represent" your group or take on unpaid DEI labor These invisible barriers don't show up in job descriptions, but they can significantly impact career progression. They're often systemic issues that require awareness and intentional action to address. Which of these have you experienced or witnessed in your workplace? #WomenofColorInEngineering #CareerDevelopment #Inclusion #Leadership #WorkplaceEquity

“𝘍𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺. 𝘐𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵.” I recently watched Lilly, the film about Lilly Ledbetter, whose fight for equal pay changed history for women in the U.S. Lilly worked nearly two decades at Goodyear tires, before discovering she was paid far less than her male peers for the same role. She was told she had missed the 180-day deadline to challenge pay discrimination. What followed was years of resistance, sabotage, and character attacks. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against her on a technicality. Yet Lilly persisted. Her determination led to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the very first bill President Obama signed into law, making it easier for workers to challenge unequal pay. What struck me most was why so many powerful men feared women getting equal pay. This is not some Middle Ages, this is now! The courage of one woman turned a “taboo” into a global conversation. In my own profession I come across very few women. Pay parity is just one part of a larger issue of representation. Watching Lilly reminded me how hard-won every step of progress is. India, too, has a long legal journey: from the Equal Remuneration Act of 1976 to the Code on Wages of 2019. On paper, parity is protected. On the ground, inequities remain stubborn. • In technology, women engineers with the same qualifications and tenure often earn less than their male colleagues. • In media and entertainment, male actors command several times the pay of women, even for equivalent box-office draw. • In the judiciary, women judges remain a tiny minority, reminding us that even the hallowed halls of justice are not immune to inequity. Each profession carries its own invisible barriers. I am left with two questions that I ask myself, and invite you to reflect on too: • Where in our ecosystems are inequities hiding in plain sight? • And what responsibility do we carry to not look away?    Change begins not with sweeping reform, but with one person simply saying: this is not fair. #Leadership #GenderBias #Entrepreneurship