Yuen: What do women want from the workplace in 2025?

In the before times, I remember being a new mom and gathering the courage to ask my newsroom director if I could leave the office early — just one day a week — so I could beat the crosstown rush hour, log in from home, and prepare dinner for my family.

She said yes on the spot. But more than anything, I recall how nervous I was in making that request. Even after I got her permission, I rarely took advantage of it because it seemed radical (and entitled) to scoot out of my cubicle when most people were still glued to their seats.

The pandemic, of course, revolutionized how we work, and I no longer experience pangs of guilt for blending occasional personal obligations into my day. For many white-collar professionals who can office anywhere, work-life balance has never been more achievable. But it still is elusive for many women, especially for those who have jobs on the front line.

Working women on average report feeling more stressed as part of their day than men (51% to 39%), according to new research from Gallup. They’re also more likely than working men to say their job is taking a toll on their mental health, that they must address personal or family responsibilities at work daily, and that they think about work during their time off.

That’s leading to more disengagement, anxiety and exhaustion from their jobs. The findings from Gallup were of no surprise to Wendy Wiesman, who runs the career-guidance service Ready. Set. Pivot. The Minnesota-based firm focuses primarily on midcareer professional women in senior leadership and executive roles.

“I think they’re definitely burned out,” she said. “We know that they are caregiving up and down the ladder, caring for parents in addition to the loss of their children who are leaving the house and going off to college. There’s a compression that happens in terms of their stress level, where they’re not willing to put up with the insanity of work.”

Wiesman founded her organization in 2020 to help women navigate professional transitions. She’s heard from countless women who are overloaded with work, have soured on toxic cultures or corporate restructuring and are reconsidering what they might do next.

So, with the calendar turning a page onto a new year, what do women want from their careers? “Perks culture,” which promised on-site massages and haircuts to lure workers after the pandemic, is apparently fading away, but that wasn’t what most women were demanding anyway.

Here’s a short list to start:

Women want to find meaning in their jobs and to be paid what they’re worth. But that’s not all. “The women we work with are questioning if their work is making them happy,” Wiesman said.

For clients pondering a significant career pivot, she encourages them to take what’s known as a Kolbe test. Unlike other workplace assessments, it doesn’t measure your IQ or personality, but how you instinctively get things done. The results can help match with potential new career paths and roles, Wiesman said.

As return-to-office mandates become more austere, we’re poised for another battle of Who Will Win? Will it be the CEOs predicting a complete return to the office within three years, or rank-and-file workers who say flexible work arrangements are essential? Women are more likely than men to say the ability to work from home is a must-have benefit, according to a study by Charles Schwab.

“Flexibility is no longer a perk — it’s a necessity,” said Stacey Stratton, president and CEO of the True Talent Group, an Edina-based staffing and recruiting firm. “For women, who still shoulder the majority of family responsibilities, this is especially critical. Employers who don’t offer this flexibility will lose out.”

Outside of the office, women are more likely than men to be saddled with managing the house or other related activities, from cooking to scheduling kids' dental appointments. They’re more than twice as likely as men to do housework on any given day, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Wiesman cautions that remote work five days a week is not the answer for most people, and such arrangements may actually hinder women by making them less visible to leadership. She said organizations need to be clear about what is expected of top achievers and the reasons behind it.

One trend Stratton has observed is a boom in fractional work, often reserved for experienced leaders who can offer their strategic knowledge to an organization on a part-time basis. These arrangements allow “women to balance career aspirations with personal responsibilities while offering employers access to specialized skills on a flexible basis,” she said.

Besides giving women more control of their schedules and in some cases greater pay, it also helps employers afford high-level expertise so “small businesses can go further faster,” Stratton said.

We as a nation have not fully reckoned with the caregiving situation that is beyond a crisis point. The Gallup survey found that working mothers are nearly twice as likely as working dads to have considered reducing their hours or leaving their jobs entirely due to child care issues.

On the other end of caregiving, more than 37 million Americans are providing unpaid elder care. Nearly 60% of those caregivers are women. Navigating an aging parent’s health care and insurance issues is a heavy load for someone working a full-time job. Caregivers of any sex need support and recognition from their employers that these duties may affect their availability at work.

Men still outnumber women at every level of the corporate pipeline, according to a recent report by McKinsey & Company. This is especially true at the manager level; for every 100 men who received their first promotion to manager in 2024, only 81 women were promoted. Further up the ladder, women of color represent only 7% of C-suite positions.

According to the Gallup poll, working moms are about twice as likely as working dads to decline or delay a promotion because of personal or family obligations.

Women don’t want to be made to feel guilty when they take off time to get a mammogram, drive a parent to the clinic, or need to head back home because their child forgot their band instrument, Stratton said. (I know that walk of shame with a trombone all too well.)

“Treat them with respect,” Stratton said. “Most people will find that if you give women the leeway they need and deserve, they’ll work harder than you ever imagined.”

Workplace expectations have shifted as people realize they want rewarding jobs as well as a fulfilling and balanced life. They need not only supportive work policies, but also a culture with visible cues that back them up.

Of course, every woman is different. Wiesman said the best way to find out what women want from their jobs is simple: Ask them.