30 September 2022 – Los Angeles, CA – Women in Research (WIRe) has released the third wave of their industry-wide study, “Gender and Career Equity in the Market Research Industry.” Previous waves of the research were conducted in 2012 and 2017. The ongoing study shows areas of improvement, obstacles to success, and the overall state of parity across the global Market Research industry.

“The findings of this study are critical in our post-pandemic world,” said Michelle Andre, Managing Director of Women in Research. “Special circumstances such as increased caretaking responsibilities, career setbacks, and financial struggle have irrevocably impacted equity in all facets of professional life and demand greater attention from our industry leaders.”

The most recent iteration of the study was conducted in late May-July of 2022 in partnership with WIRe Corporate Donor, Material, and with data collection support from WIRe’s network of media and industry partners. Over 800 participants of all genders in more than 34 countries responded to questions regarding their salary, work/life balance, career aspirations, and more.

Key findings include:

• While women have growing access to seniority, mothers in particular face obstacles, experiencing a 13% decrease in work-life balance since 2017;
• Seventy-four percent of women prefer to work remotely, compared to 65% of men;
• Since 2017, women have gained an increased sense of job satisfaction, gaining 5 percentage points in the 2022 wave, whereas men lost 4 percentage points in the same time frame;
• There is a continued absence of pay equality across genders regardless of seniority level. The pay gap between senior-level men and women widened from $8,000 USD in 2017 to $13,000 in 2022.

Results of the study suggest that economic issues such as increased inflation hit young professional women the hardest, canceling out the benefits of higher pay and promotional opportunities. While the number of women in CEO positions has increased 3% since 2017, at just 23% of the total, gender parity for this particular metric will not be reached until 2067 at the current rate of growth.

The study calls for action from companies and leaders to account for the unique needs of their diverse staff and increase equity across intersecting factors to truly bring about meaningful change in the workplace. The findings will be presented in a live webinar on October 28th; more information regarding that session can be found here.

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Read the full study results: www.womeninresearch.org/research

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Media Contact: Jessica Sage, jessica@womeninresearch.org

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About Women in Research

Women in Research (WIRe) is a global non-profit that champions diversity in the marketing research industry, supporting events and educational programming across five continents. WIRe programming facilitates leadership, entrepreneurship, mentoring and other career development goals. WIRe’s mission is to foster inclusion and advance the contributions and voice of women and other marginalized groups in research, both for themselves and the greater good of the market research industry. www.womeninresearch.org

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About Material

Material is a global strategy, insights, design, and technology partner to companies striving for true customer centricity and ongoing relevance in a digital first, customer-led world. By leveraging proprietary, science-based tools that enable human understanding, we inform and create customer-centric business models and experiences + deploy measurement systems – to build transformational relationships between businesses and the people they serve. www.materialplus.io/

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