Gender Equity Leadership in a Time of Transition

Event Overview and Strategic Goals

• The Milken Institute California Center hosted its first large-scale summit in Sacramento, shifting from the previous "State of the State Conference" format to a model focused on actionable policy recommendations.
• The Institute committed to ongoing dialogue and data-driven solutions on key state issues including workforce, housing, trade, opportunity zones, and capital access.
• A new study by colleague Jessica Jackson regarding gender equity across all 50 states is scheduled for imminent release, following prior research on women in the entertainment industry.

Key Data Points on Gender Equity in California

• Labor Force Participation: California's female labor participation rate stands at just under 70%, trailing the national average of approximately 72%.
• Childcare Economics: Childcare costs in California consume 11% of the median income compared to 9.8% nationally, yet access to childcare remains significantly higher, facilitating entry into the workforce.
• Educational Attainment: The average years of education for women in California is 13.51 years, falling below the national average of 13.91 years.
• Legislative Representation: Only 21.7% of the California State Legislature is female, a figure that trails more than half of all U.S. states.
• Executive Leadership: California outperforms the nation in female leadership roles, with women comprising over 29% of chief executives (vs. 27.5% nationally) and 44% of managers (vs. 42.5% nationally).

Panelist Perspectives on Structural Barriers

• Legislative Conflict: Legislators face a binary choice between career and family due to strict residency and conflict-of-interest laws that penalize female representatives as primary caregivers; one panelist described a situation requiring daily travel between her home district and Sacramento to care for a school-age child.
• Wealth Disparities: Significant wealth gaps persist, with white women owning 33 cents for every dollar of wealth owned by white men, while African American and Latina women own only 1 and 2 cents respectively per white man's dollar.
• Hiring Bias: One in three Americans is unaware that pay equity gaps exist for Black and Latino women, and 40% of hiring managers are unaware of these disparities, perpetuating wage inequality.
• Career Pipeline Attrition: Approximately 18% of women hired at entry-level positions advance to the next career rung, compared to significantly higher promotion rates for men.
• Unconscious Bias: Implicit biases lead audiences to rate women as significantly less trustworthy and expert than men delivering identical content; in corporate settings, women are often stereotyped as having a "soft" or emotional role rather than a strategic one.
• Social Exclusion: Networking events continue to exclude women through male-centric activities (e.g., strip clubs, golf) that serve as gatekeeping mechanisms for promotion and advancement.
• Microaggressions: Women are frequently assigned "housework" in professional settings (taking notes, getting coffee), which reinforces gendered hierarchies and limits professional visibility.

Corporate and Political Initiatives

• ICM Partners Goal: ICM Partners committed to a "50-50 by 2020" target, acknowledging that while their general workforce was balanced, leadership roles (partners, board members, department heads) remained male-dominated.
• Pipeline Development: Corporate leaders emphasized that achieving balance requires conscious mentorship and early identification of talent, rather than immediate replacement at the top.
• California Policy Reforms: Following the #MeToo movement, the California legislature expanded its definition of inappropriate conduct to include micro-aggressions and jokes, moving beyond a binary "harassment or not" enforcement model.
• Bystander Training: New policies mandate bystander intervention training to empower employees to address inappropriate behavior early before it escalates to reportable incidents.
• Outside Accountability: The state established an independent, expert panel to oversee harassment complaints to ensure impartiality and proper calibration of disciplinary responses.
• Title Reform: Legislators are advocating for the elimination of gendered or diminishing job titles (e.g., "scheduler," "secretary") in favor of accurate descriptors (e.g., "Capital Director") that reflect actual responsibilities.

Future Outlook and Predictions

• Governorship Trajectory: Panelists predict California will elect its first female governor within the next 8 years, citing a strong pipeline of female candidates currently serving as Lieutenant Governor, Controller, and Treasurer.
• Financial Hurdles: Running for statewide office in California remains prohibitively expensive, with women facing a social stigma when aggressively pursuing funding that men do not experience.
• Cultural Shift: The conversation has moved beyond policy papers to addressing the underlying culture of accountability and the normalization of men taking on primary caregiving roles.
• Strategic Recommendation: The most immediate actionable step identified is the implementation of implicit bias training and the utilization of data to track progress, moving away from anecdotal evidence of inequality.

Panelist Endorsements

• Jennifer Siebel Newsom: Advocated for the "Women's Appointments Project," noting that Governor Brown achieved 51% female appointments through intentional pipeline building and vetting.
• Chris Jackson (ICM Partners): Highlighted the "double standard" where men are viewed as "tough" for demanding behavior while women are labeled "bitches," advocating for balanced leadership teams to create meritocracies.
• Lauren Gustis (Moderator): Emphasized that culture "eats policy for breakfast," noting that without cultural change, even comprehensive written policies fail to prevent harassment.