I lived in New York City during 9/11 and so much about the COVID-19 crisis takes me back viscerally to that time. What we all need to do is to start leading, now. Whether you are a leader in name or not, your leadership skills are desperately needed to create a sense of calm, connectedness, compassion — in a word, INCLUSION — with those around you.

Because inclusion…

Today close to half of entry level roles are filled by women, and only 22% of C-level roles and a pitiful 5% of CEO roles in Fortune 500 companies are filled by women. If balance at the bottom get us to only 5% at the very top, adding to the bottom isn’t the answer.

August 26, 2019 marks the 99-year anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote.  And yet, here we are, 99 years later, and corporate America is still predominantly male at every level above entry-level.  At the most senior levels, only 22% of C-suite executives, 23% of SVPs and 29% of VPs are female. Less than 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.

What is the agreement between an employer and employee, beyond compensation and benefits? What are the inherent assumptions on each side of the table? And why aren’t we having a more direct dialog about them?

Are you wanting to do more to advance women in your company, but feel like you can’t prioritize something that feels like a nice-to-have? I have good news for you - you can put advancing women on the top of your to-do list because the benefits to your business are huge - big enough to trump your other initiatives, to grow your business, to secure investors and to attract and retain great employees.

I know, that sounds like motherhood and apple pie.  And you’re probably thinking, yes, we should do that, but I have 10 other burning issues right now and have to make sure I hit my performance targets for the quarter. Let me put it to you another way… Not advancing women creates a huge missed opportunity for your business.

Unconscious bias has become a bit of a buzzword lately, with companies such as Starbucks, Google and Facebook publicly talking about the training they are doing to educate employees about it.  While there is no quick training that anyone can do to “fix” their unconscious bias, opening your eyes to the biases you have that you are not aware of – and their unintended consequences, particularly in the workplace – is incredibly valuable.

I have had several conversations recently with male leaders that have been a bit maddening. Maddening because they get right to core of how hard it is to shift the gender equity paradigm in the workplace.

Whether your company or department has 15 people or 150, if you did not start your business with a gender-balanced team, achieving gender parity can feel like an insurmountable challenge. I’m here to tell you it is not.

I recently analyzed the data in McKinsey’s Lean In reports, Best Places to Work lists and publicly available company annual reports to develop deeper insights on why companies have such a difficult time moving more women into leadership roles.  What struck me is that the majority of the workforces at top-rated companies for women have been with those companies for less than 2 years.

When I was in college, my dad told me there were no senior women in his law firm.  And then he said, “But when there is an executive woman in the room, everyone pays attention. Take advantage of this and make sure you have something smart to say.”

One of the most important things men can do to improve gender equity at work is to help break down the men vs women silo-ing into everyone being seen and treated as individual people. I’m focusing on men here because most senior level positions are held by men, so it is even more important that men set the example.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Georgene Huang, CEO and Co-Founder of Fairygodboss, an online career community focused on empowering women in their job searches by providing insights about companies from people who have worked there. In our conversation Georgene shared some of the key insights she has gained from interacting with the Fairygodboss community.

Jefferies Financial Group CEO Rich Handler and President Brian Friedman wrote an open letter to their staff stating “We cannot control the markets but we can control how we act and behave... we choose fairness, integrity, transparency, inclusion, openness, meritocracy, and equal opportunity for all.” It is beautifully written and in direct response to a recent Bloomberg article in which 30 Wall Street executives describe how they “avoid women at all costs” as a result of the #MeToo movement.

Since the passing of law requiring publicly held companies based in California to have a minimum of one woman on their Boards of Directors by the end of 2019 there has been a lot of debate about the effectiveness of quotas. Will this forced change make a real difference? Or will it create resentment toward women who are appointed and end up hamstringing their ability to be effective?

I had the privilege of attending On PAR sponsored by Microsoft and The Study USA last week. One of the things that made this different than other women’s events was that many of the speakers shared very personal reasons why they champion gender equity at work.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of hearing Rachel Ligtenberg, VP of retail for REI, speak about REI’s focus on creating an equitable playing field for women outdoors. She spoke with great pride about her company’s commitment to women as an extension of its overall purpose-based business model. REI had record revenue results last year and has spent 20 years on Fortune’s 100 best companies to work for list, neither small feats.

McKinsey and LeanIn.org’s Women in the Workplace 2018 Study* was just released, showing that women’s progress in holding a more equitable proportion of company roles remains very slow.