Research: Why Women Trust Their Employers Less Than Men Do

In a 2021 study, a team at Deloitte measured trust levels of 5,000 U.S. employees across job types and industries. They found that while women and men enter the workforce with essentially the same level of trust in their employers, women’s trust rapidly falls behind men’s and continues to lag throughout their careers. By the time women reach the director level, they trust their employers 30% less than men at the same level. Scores only begin to recover as women enter the senior leadership ranks, but they never fully catch up. Why aren’t employers’ efforts to create a more transparent and equitable workplace translating into greater trust for women? A key reason, the authors posit, is that the well-intentioned policies that should promote equity between men and women, such as flex time and performance-based compensation, tend not to benefit women as much or in the same ways as they do men. Through an iterative process of measurement, experimentation, and refinement, organizations can better identify the ways in which their policies treat people differently and make changes that will continue to narrow the trust gaps between men and women.