From Utah Women in Leadership Project
LOGAN — How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected women in their career goals? On KVNU’s For the People program on Thursday, Dr. Susan Madsen, founding director of Utah State University’s Women in Leadership Project, said their latest research is just the beginning of more research coming out this month.
“This particular study, I believe we talked about it last month, but it’s another big, big piece of the study we collected in January. Data from over 3,500 women in the state of Utah on the impact of COVID-19 on Utah women in the workplace. So, this particular study that we just released today is just qualitative, it’s our first qualitative (study),” she explained.
Dr. Madsen said the study released is very specific as to women’s career advancement challenges.
“Of our entire study, about 60 percent said ‘yes, I’ve had serious career advancement issues.’ And then they told us about what those were.”
Overall, many Utah women have explained that, for numerous reasons, they believe their career advancement trajectories have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
For some, this was employer related, such as paused raises and promotions because of economic uncertainty. For others, the stall was related to limitations imposed by remote work, such as lack of networking and inability to impress.
Others felt they could not pursue opportunities like a promotion, a better job elsewhere, or furthering their education because of increased responsibility at home or declining mental health.
You can read the entire findings at UTwomen.org.
AUDIO: Dr Susan Madsen with latest research on KVNU’s For the People program on 5-6-2021