HAPPY PLACE

THESE COMPANIES HELP WOMEN FIND THEIR

Rankings based on reviews from almost 15,000 women about their overall job satisfaction, gender equity

Although women make up roughly half the workforce, complete gender equity in the workplace is still a long way off.

If current trends persist, on average women won’t receive equal pay until 2059, and that progress is even slower for women of color.

Even with the rise of sites such as Glassdoor and Monster, many women still wonder how prospective employers handle genderspecific issues in the workplace like family leave and pay equity.

Some female job seekers are turning to Fairygodboss, a job review site exclusively for women. The site provides crowd- sourced intel on how female- friendly company policy is at thousands of businesses.

The 2- year- old start- up just released its 2017 rankings of the best companies where women are happiest.

At Boston Consulting Group ( BCG), this year’s winner, hiring and promoting more women has been a priority for more than a decade. “Getting women in the door is the first step, and then we really focus on ensuring that we are supporting women along the way,” said Michelle Russell, partner lead for Women@ BCG, a program focused on improving women’s experience at the firm.

In just five years, the company was able to increase the number of women in its North American firms by 70% and raise women’s retention rates to be equal or higher than men’s.

BCG was able to close the retention gap through programs like Women@ BCG and the Apprenticeship in Action initiative, a direct response to feedback from women who said they were dissatisfied with mentorship opportunities. Through the Apprenticeship in Action initiative, the company was able to boost female promotion rates by 22% among senior managers.

Russell said the company also stepped up its recruitment of women and improved work- flexibility policies to make the compa- ny culture more inclusive.

Fairygodboss’ rankings are based on the responses from almost 15,000 women about overall job satisfaction, gender equity and likelihood of recommending their company to another woman.

The data is pulled from the anonymous job reviews that Fairygodboss uses to create company profiles.

“One of the reasons we have this ranking is because our social mission is to improve the workplace environment for women,” said Georgene Huang, CEO and co- founder of Fairygodboss.

“Our intent is for employers to learn from what companies at the top are doing right,” she said.

Women, particularly women of color, face a unique set of obstacles in almost every industry.

Men are 30% more likely to be promoted than women, which results in a disproportionate amount of male executives, according to a survey from Sheryl Sandberg’s LeanIn. org and the McKinsey consulting group.

Women also often bring up their employer’s family leave policy in their job reviews. Fairygodboss was actually born out of the challenges Huang faced when she was two months’ pregnant and hiding it from her employers.

“During my interviews, I really wanted to ask about maternity policy and what the path for leadership was for women, but I felt like I couldn’t for fear of looking less committed,” she said.

GETTY IMAGES/ ISTOCKPHOTO