It really REALLY makes my blood boil when I read articles and research about the gender pay gap. The sad news is that, despite the UK making rapid progress, the latest report from PwC reckons that the gender pay gap won’t close until 2041, as reported in City AM this morning.
Despite campaigning, talking, working, reading, researching, activisting (I know, not a real word) since the day I started work (many moons ago), gender pay equality is STILL a generation away. MY daughters will be up against this too.
And did you read Susan Fowler’s post about her experiences at Uber yesterday.
It’s not right and it’s not fair.
What can we do about it?
Other than all apply to be Prime Minister (as one bright spark suggested on my Twitter feed this morning but sadly there is only ONE Prime Minister role in Britain), we all bear a responsibility to see it, call it, sort it.
We need to be brave. We need to speak up. We need to ask for what we deserve (and believe that you DO deserve it). We need to engage men as change agents. We need to raise our awareness of how we behave and communicate.
We need to call it when we see it – whether that’s gender discrimination or unconscious bias. This is not something for just women to sort out. It’s something that everybody could and should get involved in.
Why do we even have gender pay gap?
It’s partly cultural. After all, we’ve grown up in a society where men were seen as the family breadwinners. It’s also partly to do with the way that women communicate and behave. We tend to negotiate at the lower end of a pay scale. Women are more likely to do the lesser paid roles (e.g. nursing). There are more women than men in part-time roles. Some discrepancies are more understandable.
However what makes me really cross is when two people doing the same role, one male, one female and the male gets paid more. Or, as I witnessed, the man is given a bigger bonus ‘just because’ he is a man.
Want some help to see it, call it, sort it?
How does this affect you? How do you feel about it affecting your daughters?
If you want to rant privately to a sympathetic ear about the gender gap, discrimination or unconscious bias where you work, do get in touch. Or if you want help on how to see it, call it, sort it, let’s talk.
Maybe you are seeing it (or maybe you’re doubting yourself). Maybe you’re calling it, but nothing’s happening. Whichever it is, if you do with some help on sorting it, let’s have a conversation.
p.s. if you want to do something about the gender pay gap, please share this post
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