ENTITY Academy CEO Jennifer Schwab joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the trend in female executives exiting their roles or switching jobs, STEM industry retention, and the state of the gender wage gap in the post-pandemic period.

Video Transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: A mass exodus of female leaders is upon us. News research from-- new research, excuse me, from McKinsey shows senior managers, vice presidents, and those in the C-suite leaving their jobs at the highest rate ever-- 10.5% in 2021, more than double the 9% of male leaders leaving the workforce. Women leaders are switching jobs at the highest rates the survey has ever seen. Jennifer Schwab is the CEO of Entity Academy, who joins us for today's installment of Career Control, brought to you by Straight Talk Wireless. Nice to see you. Why, in your estimation, are women leaders fleeing the workforce?

JENNIFER SCHWAB: Well, some of it's nothing new. The studies-- the McKinsey study has been out for eight years. But we are seeing some of the same old, same old things-- microaggressions, especially as you're ascending in the workforce sometimes they apparently get worse. We are also seeing that women are feeling like they're undermined, as they're advancing. And they're being passed over for promotions. In a lot of ways, that's like a vicious cycle because if we don't get women into senior leadership roles, there's far fewer to choose from to end up in the C-suite.

And so, in our estimation, things have gotten maybe a little bit better. We focus on STEM, so the numbers are creeping up for women in STEM. But overall, senior leadership roles for women, it's still not good enough.

SEANA SMITH: So, Jennifer, you mentioned STEM there. You mentioned that it's getting a little bit better. I guess, what are you noticing that's working? How are you getting more women into STEM and then staying in the workforce?

JENNIFER SCHWAB: Yeah, that's the challenge. I think there's been progress on getting women to pursue STEM careers, but it's retaining them. Accenture put out a study that said 50% of women that are in STEM careers actually leave them by the time they're 35. So I think we're getting people excited about STEM, but the retention issue still needs to be addressed.

DAVE BRIGGS: Why are they leaving, and how do you get them to stay?

JENNIFER SCHWAB: Like I said, they leave for a number of reasons. Feeling undermined-- that can be very demoralizing. Feeling like, OK, I've done all the right things. I've put my life into this company, but I'm still being passed over. And perhaps if I go to another company, I can advance faster. That's one of the reasons they're also leaving. And I've seen this play out at Entity with a number of our mentors that are in senior management roles, where they see the glass ceiling, and they say, OK, I can go somewhere else to actually get the promotion I deserve here.

SEANA SMITH: And a lot of that points to the gender pay gap and what we've been seeing on that front. Have we seen any significant improvement there? And I guess, how has COVID maybe stifled some of the step forward that we did make prior to 2020?

JENNIFER SCHWAB: Yeah, so in terms of closing the gender pay gap, I think that wages got better when the workforce was very tight. Last year, when you saw that there was the Great Resignation, companies were starting to pay more to get-- to recruit and retain talent. And now, as we're entering this recession, things are starting to reverse again. And it's really disappointing because many companies are saying, OK, I want to find somebody who's already been in this discipline and can hit the ground running day one because I have a limited budget of who I can hire. So they're not as focused on diversifying the workforce as we're entering into a recession.

DAVE BRIGGS: Good stuff there. Entity Academy CEO Jennifer Schwab, appreciate what you're doing and coming here to talk about it. Thanks.