Archive for the ‘Pay Gap’ Category
C This
In this edition, myths about working mothers are busted, the importance of engaging women on climate change is explored, and Australia’s “blokey,” or chauvinistic, culture is analyzed. Author Susan Douglas takes on “a new, subtle form of sexism,” and we look at disturbing information about the wealth gap for black and Hispanic women in America.
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Gap, What Gap?
Startling new data on the wealth gap for single black and hispanic women only garnered one national television news mention, one NPR news story, two opinion pieces and one newspaper report. What did everyone miss? The fact that “single black women have a median wealth of $100 and Hispanic women $120—dramatically lower than white men ($43,800), white women ($41,500) or black men ($7,900),” according to the report.
READ: “Wealth Gap Yawns—and So Do Media,” by Julie Hollar, Extra!, June 2010
Women in a Warming World
“Women need to be protected, engaged, and empowered for climate solutions to truly succeed,” writes Kari Manlove of the Center for American Progress. Involving women at high-level climate negotiations is one place to start.
READ: “Women’s Role in a Warming World,” by Kari Manlove, Center for American Progress, 5/26/10
Inequity Down Under
Last year, the Australia Securities Exchange (ASX) announced a proposal to expand corporate governance principles to include a mandatory gender diversity policy. In a country where a “blokey” culture rules, what effect will this have upon Australian corporate culture?
READ: “Not So Wizard in Oz,” by Cleo, The Gender Blog, 5/26/10
Myth Busting
The Washington Post tackles myths about working mothers. Did you know, for example, that working women (and men, for that matter) today spend more time with their children than ever before? Or that the more education a woman receives the less likely she is to “op-out” of her career? Consider these myths busted.
READ: “Five myths about working mothers,” by Naomi Cahn and June Carbone, The Washington Post, 5/30/10
An Insidious Bias
What is “enlightened sexism?” According to author Susan Douglas, this new, subtle form of sexism “insists that full equality for women has been achieved … so it’s OK to resurrect retrograde, sexist images of women in the media, all with a wink and a laugh.” I agree with Douglas— how else to explain the sexist imagery and language that still pervades our media?
READ: “The New Sexism,” by Laura Fitzpatrick, Time, 3/16/10
Mind the Gap
Happy Equal Pay Day—today you’ve just earned as much as a man!
April 20th marks how far into 2010 women must work from January 1st 2009 to match what men earned last year. Women in the United States make about 77 cents to every dollar made by a man. The gap is worse in other other countries. Women work just as hard, but are paid less. Does this seem fair to you?
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 made it illegal for employers in the U.S. to pay women and men different wages for doing the same type of work. But the pay gap still cuts deep.
Professionals are hit the hardest. The latest data show that female physicians in the United States earn, on average, 39% less than male physicians. Women financial analysts take in 35% less, and female chief executives one-quarter less.
Men earn more in “traditional” female jobs, too. Female beauticians earn 30% less than male colleagues, women cashiers 19% less, and female waiters 21% less. Any way you slice it, men make more money.
Twenty-three cents might not sound like a lot until you do the math. The small nicks to a woman’s paycheck add up to astonishing amounts. A woman who graduates high school will earn roughly $700,000 less than her male classmates over the course of her life. A female college graduate will earn $1.2 million less.
And how’s this for a graduation present? Women who earn an MBA, an M.D. or a law degree fare even worse. They will make $2 million less during their lifetime than the men in their graduating class.
Inequities start from day one. Catalyst found that female MBAs earn, on average, $4,600 less in their first job out of business school. Women start behind and never catch up.
On March 11, 2010, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pension held a hearing on the pay gap. Among the proposals offered was a legislation that would require employers to publicly disclose job categories and pay scale. This is vital to destroying the pay gap and would provide needed transparency so that companies can fix the current inequities.
Just ask Lilly Ledbetter. She earned $3,727 per month at an Alabama Goodyear plant. When an anonymous note informed her that the lowest paid man doing the same job earned $4,286—and the highest paid man earned $5,236—she sued. In his first legislative act as president, Barack Obama signed a law that closed the legal loophole that cost Ledbetter the case. And he named the bill after her.
For Lilly, the pay gap is not simply a woman’s issue— it’s a family issue. “If your wife doesn’t get paid fairly, it affects you. If you’ve got children, it affects them,” she said in an interview last year.
Here’s how I see it. Being paid 23% less means there’s 23% less going into the system—into women’s retirement plans and Social Security accounts. We keep losing ground even after we stop working. And when women pay taxes on 23% less salary, the whole economy loses out.
Let’s not forget that one definition of “fair pay” is pay that you still think is fair after you find out what everyone else is making! The whole idea that it’s not feminine, ladylike, or polite to care about money is so 20th century. And it was a miserable idea then, too.
So find out what you should earn. Get the data on your industry’s norms. Ask people in your field. If you are earning less, demand more, or consider working somewhere else. Don’t value companies that do not value you.
Catalyst to Disband—Parity Reached
I’m happy to announce that after nearly 50 years of changing women’s lives, Catalyst has accomplished its goal of total gender parity and will shut its doors. Thank you all! We couldn’t have done it without you.
The latest Catalyst research reveals that women now comprise 50.3% of Fortune 500 CEO slots and 49.8% of Fortune 500 board seats. The gender pay gap has virtually disappeared: women earn, on average, only 0.4% less than men. And since our latest study on inequity between women and men MBA grads, companies have taken serious action. The nation’s leading companies have recalibrated their practices based on merit, not gender. Women MBAs now start at the same level, earn the same amount of money, and are promoted as frequently as equally qualified men. Not surprisingly, job satisfaction among these women is now roughly the same as that of their male colleagues!
I was excited to see that Time marked this historic moment by honoring American “Women of the Year.” The magazine cited the economic downturn as the reason for overwhelming male engagement in gender initiatives and the subsequent surge in workplace equality. “The recession brought a kind of enforced enlightenment,” extolled Time. “Husbands badly needed their wives’—or daughters’—paychecks to help support the family.”
To help society make the transition, Catalyst has earmarked its remaining FY2010 operating budget for a series of post-parity workshops. I will be chairing “Managing Your Company’s Record Profits: A How-To,” “All Aboard!: A Step-by-Step Guide for New Women on Board,” and “Double Your Income—Double Your Fun!: Enhanced Quality of Life in the Post-Parity Age.”
It’s been a quite a journey, and a successful one. Or at least it would have been, if it weren’t April Fool’s Day!
OK, back to reality. But before we go there, imagine a world in which women and men were valued equally at work. An environment in which gender stereotyping wasn’t holding women back. A place in which women and men earned an equal amount for doing the same work. What would this world look like to you?
While the Fortune 500 and post-MBA facts above are made-up, the Time article is not. On January 5, 1976, the magazine featured “Women of the Year” on its cover. The accompanying article soberly concluded: “American women, if they have not arrived, are in the process of arrival. Just how far they will go—and how fast—is not totally clear, for women are themselves altering the destination, changing it from a man’s world to something else.”
More than 30 years later, we still are. Although we’ve edged closer to parity, Catalyst remains open for business. And those post-parity workshops will just have to wait.
