A special post authored by Electives instructor Trish Foster.
Women’s History Month gives HR, People and L&D teams a timely opportunity to address workplace barriers that affect women year-round. Focus learning on three practical areas: confidence and self-promotion, burnout and wellbeing, and broader gender equity issues such as advancement, caregiving and health disparities.
How can workplaces turn Women’s History Month into year-round progress?
Use Women’s History Month to honor women’s achievements while creating space to learn, reflect and act. Electives can help teams celebrate Women’s History Month and other DEI holidays through live expert-led learning.
A March session can open an important conversation, but enduring impact requires year-round attention. Connect learning to practical behavior change, manager support and the everyday decisions that shape how work gets done.
1. Address confidence, self-promotion and advancement barriers
What does current research show?
- In a National Bureau of Economic Research experiment, women rated their performance at an average of 46 out of 100 while men rated theirs at 61, even though both groups answered an average of 10 out of 20 questions correctly. The researchers described this as a gap in self-promotion, not simply a gap in confidence.
- Women in the Workplace 2025 found that 93 women were promoted to manager for every 100 men. The figure fell to 60 Black women for every 100 men.
- Women held 29% of C-suite roles in the same 2025 study, while women of color held 7%.
What can a live class cover?
Electives can deliver a live, expert-led Private Class focused on closing the confidence gap and overcoming hidden workplace barriers.
In this workshop, your team can explore:
- How confidence and self-advocacy can influence visibility, opportunity and advancement.
- How gendered and intersectional barriers, including microaggressions, the motherhood penalty, the double bind and the broken rung, can affect women at work.
- Strategies for communicating contributions, asking for support and building confidence.
- Ways managers and colleagues can create fairer conditions for participation and advancement.
Participants have a chance to share stories and connect with one another. The result is a dynamic and often poignant workshop that helps learners identify practical changes they can make in their careers and workplaces.
2. Address burnout, connection and wellbeing
What does current research show?
- In Deloitte’s Women @ Work 2025 survey of 7,500 women across 15 countries, 51% described their mental health as good or extremely good, while 25% said they had taken time off work in the previous year because of mental health challenges.
- Among senior-level women who had been with their companies for five years or less, 70% reported frequent burnout in the Women in the Workplace 2025 study.
- The same study found that 77% of senior-level Black women had frequently experienced burnout in the previous few months.
What can a live class cover?
Electives can deliver a live Private Class on connection, mindfulness and burnout prevention.
In this class, participants can gain:
- A data-based understanding of challenges related to overwork, stress, psychological safety and isolation.
- Knowledge about the benefits of connection and ways to build it.
- Accessible mindfulness practices, including options for people who think meditation is not for them.
- A five-step framework to help address burnout, create connections, de-stress and re-energize.
When employees are facing overwork and stress, it can be difficult to make time for mental health and wellbeing. Bringing people together to explore the issues, available support and practical interventions can be a meaningful first step.
3. Build shared understanding of gender equity
What does current research show?
- At the current pace of progress, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025 estimates that global gender parity is still 123 years away.
- In 2025, 54% of companies surveyed by McKinsey and LeanIn.Org said women’s career advancement was a high priority. Only 46% said the same about the advancement of women of color.
- According to 2024 maternal mortality data published by the CDC in March 2026, the maternal mortality rate for non-Hispanic Black women was 44.8 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared with 14.2 for non-Hispanic White women.
What can a guided gender equity conversation cover?
Electives can deliver a live, guided conversation on gender equity issues, helping teams learn and reflect together in a thoughtfully facilitated environment.
Gender equity issues at work remain priorities for many organizations. Leaders cannot solve every challenge employees face, but they can create space for learning, offer support, nurture mutual compassion and advance understanding.
In this workshop, participants can:
- Review relevant gender equity issues, such as advancement barriers, the wage gap, health disparities, intersecting identities and allyship.
- Participate in an informed and thoughtful discussion.
- Share their own stories or questions and hear from others.
In an optional longer version of this workshop, participants can:
- Learn how to hold conversations on sensitive topics.
- Use a framework to prepare for courageous conversations.
- View and critique a live demonstration.
- Practice their own conversations in a safe space and receive feedback.
A guided gender equity conversation can also be customized to address issues affecting your organization. This approach keeps the discussion timely, fact-based, caring and relevant to your learners.
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