- Key insight: Discover how integrated benefits, policy and culture reduce female talent attrition and boost performance.
- What's at stake: Unchecked gaps could exacerbate talent shortages and harm competitiveness.
- Supporting data: Forbes-recognized employers outperformed peers by 12 percentage points in growth.
Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review
Women can
In 2025, the EAE analyzed 11 years of data and gathered feedback from its company leadership members to put together eight growing risks that can impact a business, and the role employers have in countering them. The risks include mental health, physical security,
The impact of these on women was specifically identified in the group's report, Employees Investing in Women: Advancing Business, Employees and Communities. For example, over half of young women feel work has negatively impacted their mental health, almost half worry about their personal safety while at work or commuting, and more than 200,000 women left the workforce in 2025, expanding an existing talent shortage.
Also in the report, EAE members framed an approach to minimizing these areas of concern using benefits, policies, leadership encouragement, social investment and workplace culture. It also highlights specific companies, such as technology solutions firm Maximus and New York's largest healthcare provider, Northwell Health, that are excelling in particular areas.
"[Employers] can't remove all of them, but they could help people work through it better and come out stronger," says Sabrina Spitaletta, one of the report's authors. "From women's healthcare to their career … You have to create opportunities where there's clear support for accessing the resources, benefits and policies provided, and that comes from modeling and transparent communication."
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Benefits use should be encouraged
The report notes the importance of setting up specific benefits for women's physical health, citing Maximus for its offerings related to pelvic floor therapy, menopause support and family building. But it's the practice of encouraging access that allows benefits like this to have an impact, says Spitaletta, and benefit leaders should partner with other departments to plan out the education and communication that make this common practice.
"What are the direct and indirect signals that make it okay to access benefits?" she says. For example, a flexible work policy may be in place so employees can attend doctor's appointments, but a manager's attitude can render it useless. "Are you getting signals from your manager in front of everyone such as, 'Oh, you were out again.' The language undercuts access and creates fear. The culture that supports access is not just the 'what' you have, it's how you support it."
Spitaletta notes that manager training is an important part of this process, and she encourages leaders at all levels to not only be educated on what benefits are available, but go out of their way to use them if possible so they can talk about them with their team. The more supportive a culture is and the more people feel seen, the more successful they and the business will be, she explains. "Empathetic communication — that sensitivity to the delivery and support of the benefits or the policies that are in place — is powerful."
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Resetting industry standards
When employers successfully establish internal support systems for their female employees, they can further raise the bar by extending this investment to their community. The report highlights New York's Northwell Health, where personalized women's health programs and advanced digital health technology and strategies for patients are extended to employees as well.
Spitaletta points to other, more general ways organizations can simultaneously support women in their workplace and communities, such as
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The payoff of supporting women
To drive home the advantage of supporting women in the workplace, the EAE analyzed stock performance of companies listed in Forbes' America's Best Employers for Women 2025. When compared with companies of similar size and industry that did not receive the designation, these companies were ahead in growth rate by an average of 12 percentage points.
Spitaletta says that, along with clear business outcomes, the positive impacts that stem from supporting the health of female employees are felt by the entire workforce.
"The mentality and the philosophical approach of employers focused on whole-person health for women will help all," she says. "It's looking at not just healthcare, but caregiving roles, financial independence, the economic component, the child duties, and realizing benefits and policies plus culture lead to support. You create healthier ties, and it becomes a trusted environment where people grow and bring others along with them."
For more on how to support women in the workplace:
