Wendy Chun-Hoon, director, Women's Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, on Work in Progress podcast with Ramona Schindelheim, editor-in-chief of WorkingNation, discussing women in the workforce
Wendy Chun-Hoon, director, Women's Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, on Work in Progress podcast with Ramona Schindelheim, editor-in-chief of WorkingNation, discussing women in the workforce

Women in the workforce are making strides, but there is still work to do

A conversation with Wendy Chun-Hoon, director, Women's Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor
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In this episode of the Work in Progress podcast, Wendy Chun-Hoon, director of the Women’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor, joins me to discuss the progress the century-old bureau has made when it comes to creating equality, fairness, and safety for women in the workforce.

While more women than ever before are working, many still face lower wages than their male counterparts, sexual harassment, and lack of support around childcare and family care. Chun-Hoon describes herself as a longtime advocate for women in the workforce. She says she feels the Bureau has made many strides, but there is still much work to be done.

There are more than 79 million women in the workforce, but in some fields they’re still underrepresented in in-demand fields that pay well and overrepresented in jobs that pay less.

Here’s one example: the demand for both home health care workers and software developments are both growing. Women make up just 18.6% of all software developer jobs which have a median annual salary of $132,270. In contrast, nearly 88% of home health care workers are women. Those jobs have a median annual salary of $33,530. Chun-Hoon shares what the current administration and past administrations to address that imbalance.

We also discuss the critical issue of childcare for working women and government-wide efforts to ensure women have the support they need for caring for their children so they can remain a part of the workforce or join the workforce. Also in the podcast, we talk about the creation of the Gender Policy Council which not only addresses the wage and childcare issues, but also addresses gender-based violence for women in the workforce.

In summing up her time in office, which ends January 20, Chun-Hoon tells me, “I’ve seen breakthroughs that I wasn’t expecting. I’ve seen some disappointments.  I know that the Women’s Bureau is also going to keep up that fight to really serve its enduring mission and the legacy that the Women’s Bureau is, which is to represent the needs of working women.”

You can listen to the entire conversation here, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find our podcasts on the Work in Progress YouTube channel.

Episode 347: Wendy Chun-Hoon, director, Women’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4
Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode here
Work in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.