My niece is two. She’ll never see gender equality.
If we’re lucky, maybe the generation after my niece will experience gender equality in their lifetimes. If we’re really lucky, maybe we can reverse the trend and make it happen in the next century.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the global gender gap sat at 99.5 years. Now, it’s increased to 135.6 according to a recent World Economic Forum (WEF) report. Until a few years ago, I rolled my eyes at comments about gender gaps or discrimination. I lived through a series of bad experiences with women as far back as my teenage years in an all-girls high school. When I graduated college and entered the “real world” 20+ years ago, I believed that if women weren’t getting what they deserved, they were doing something wrong. Gender inequality was something my mom dealt with in the 1970s and ‘80s — back when she wasn’t allowed to wear pants in the office. I was certain it was thing of the past in the year 2000.
I was wrong. According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, women earned 73% compared to men in 2000. I came to learn that my annual starting salary at my first post-college job was $12,000 less than my male counterpart’s. Or 75%. I had a relevant degree and two years of related experience from working at a local newspaper. He had neither. I also took on his workload out of boredom when he claimed it was too much. This was before I knew about the difference in our paychecks.
Gender-based pay discrimination became illegal more than 60 years ago, but it’s still a widespread practice. So, how is it still happening? Research cites differences in industries or jobs worked, years of experience, hours worked, or discrimination as causes.
My starting salary set the baseline for my current annual income. Employers may discriminate in pay when they rely on prior salary history in hiring and compensation decisions. This means pay decisions influenced by discrimination can follow women, and all diverse talent, from job to job. Basing job offers on existing salaries is a practice some companies are starting to phase out, but it isn’t the norm yet, and it’s been required for every job I’ve had.
Almost 10 years later in 2008, I moved to a new role where I was the only woman on a team of five in a male-dominated industry. One of my male coworkers would bring me to client meetings to help me network and learn more about the industry. Maybe he really believed that’s what he was doing. But he’d introduce me, then tell me to take notes and clean up after meetings when we served food or coffee.
But I still wasn’t convinced about gender inequality. And I still preferred working with men. I had gender fatigue, a term applied to acknowledging that gender inequality exists in general while denying that it exists in one’s immediate work environment.
Like many people, I strategically ignored gender inequality. Discrimination couldn’t take place because women now had advantages to help them succeed — or it happened elsewhere, or it only existed in the past. When presented with incidents of discrimination, even against me, I felt they had nothing to do with gender.
I had a female manager in my next job. She wasn’t a good manager, and I decided it was because she was a woman. I still relied on my last manager for guidance and shared my frustrations with him. His observation was women were at a disadvantage as managers or leaders because companies didn’t provide them, or other diverse talent, the same training and mentorship given to men. It wasn’t because women were somehow less capable of doing the job.
Something else happened at this point in my career — I began growing positive professional relationships with other women. We helped each other advance rather than working against each other. I also worked for one of my other all-time best managers, who happens to be a woman.
In 2017, around the time I was emerging from my gender fatigue, the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security reported that 56% of the adult population believed the U.S. had achieved gender equality.
This optimism may not have been grounded in reality. A 2020 study published in Organizational Science found that companies are still penalized for creating gender-diverse boards. But data shows that companies perform better with diverse leadership. The study’s authors believed the penalties were due to the stereotype that females are less competent in business than males.
It’s now 2021, and the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted female workers disproportionately. During the pandemic, women lost their jobs at a higher rate than men. Two million women left the workforce in the last year and women’s workforce participation rate is the lowest since 1988. Before the pandemic, women made up more than 50% of the U.S. workforce and 39% of the global workforce. In December 2020, women accounted for 100% of the job losses.
A review of commentary on LinkedIn about this report shows how much people’s responses to gender discrimination and inequality vary. Some empathize, recognize there is a problem, and offer solutions for change. Others don’t feel there is an issue. Or they recognize inequality exists, but that it does so for valid reasons. The comments and feedback I’ve found don’t represent all women’s or men’s views on gender inequality. But many do demonstrate gender fatigue.
We’re left with the big question: can we reverse the trend? WEF’s suggestions include:
-Focus on long-term solutions that expand childcare for all workers.
-Put structures in place so high-demand roles need to be filled by women.
-Hire and retain more women as companies rebuild the workforce.
Everyone can make an impact on a micro level. Natasha* works with an inclusive group of male peers and leaders. She shared two recent experiences with me.
There was one time I happened to be the only woman on a work trip with my leadership team. I could tell the guys felt uncomfortable with me around, like they just couldn’t be guys. It was unconscious, but they were adjusting their behavior because I was there, and it made me uncomfortable.
She’s describing a group of men who truly believe in advancing women and building an inclusive work culture. But they didn’t realize how their behavior was doing the opposite, and it was unconscious. Looking back on the incident, she realizes it would’ve been a good opportunity to educate her peers on how their behavior wasn’t inclusive and she feels they would’ve been receptive to her feedback.
Overall, Natasha works in an environment striving for inclusivity, but this wasn’t the only time she’d experienced unconscious bias. She’s had more recent experiences where men comment on her appearance in meetings. While their comments are positive, they are still inappropriate. But she knows her male counterparts would want to know how their comments are not inclusive. Using situations like these to educate people can help impact micro-level changes.
Since joining my company five years ago, I’ve had two female mentors. I can relate to them differently than the men who I selected as informal mentors in the past— who also played instrumental roles in my career. These women have first-hand insight that can guide me on how to manage micro and macro aggressions I encounter because they’ve faced and overcame them in their careers too.
For the first time in 20 years, I feel like I work for a company genuinely striving to influence and improve gender equality. My leaders take actionable steps to ensure change. Yet, even working in the female-dominated Communications field, with more women leaders than ever before, I have never had a woman at the top of my function’s organizational chain. The ultimate Communications leader I’ve reported into has always been a man. It’s not that these men weren’t great for the job, but I’m sure there were well-qualified women overlooked for the job too.
After the impact of 2020, gender inequality is on the fast track to getting worse. Corporations and government policies alone can’t achieve change. People need to snap out of their gender fatigue if they haven’t already. We need to help educate those closest to us. Our seemingly small actions can add up to make a big impact.
The $12,000 difference in my starting salary 21 years ago is costing me approximately $25,000 of possible annual earnings today. That alone motivates me to want to influence change. More importantly, my niece and every woman in her generation should be given equal rights, opportunities, and pay in their lifetime — that should motivate every man and woman to do better.
*Name has been changed to maintain confidentiality.
