When the words economic growth comes to our mind, we would envision a man, most likely white, in a clean, nice black suit. It is something that is “expected” of the society of our time. No one would think of a woman having a top executive position of a workplace and this is a problem. Women face many problems in the workplace even in the 21st century all over the world. Three of which I am going to discuss are the lack of women in executive positions, the concept of glass ceiling and glass escalator, and the wage disparity to demonstrate the inequality between men and women in the workplace.
Women are holding a little bit over 17 percent of independent directors which is shown to be an upward trend since 2002. This implies that many leadership positions are still behind held by men but is decreasing as time is passing. Many top women leaders such as Sheryl Sandberg and Ann Scott Plante are trying to reach out to women to form support groups and get them interested in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field. Catherine Wolfram, however, found that women tend to leave their job before getting a raise in ranks and pay. Another simple reason for this problem is the idea of stereotype, because of the patriarchal society we’re living in. This idea favors men which cause the consideration that they are more superior and are the origin of success.
The idea of glass ceiling is where women see the limit in their own career in terms of hierarchy while men can still attain higher. This is generally true with the inevitable concept of stereotypes and patriarchal society. There anther concept called the glass escalator which talks about men in women-dominating careers such as teachers and nurses tend to rise faster than women in men-dominating fields, for example STEM fields. Aside from the stereotypes, maternity leave also can account to these reasons of glass structure that inhibit women rising in ranks.
According to the American Association of University Women (AAUS), women were paid about 22% less of what men were paid in full time positions, 2013. Women experience pay gap across all 50 states and in almost all occupations. The wage gap is even worse for minorities and grows with age. Though education tend to help workers increase their pay, but it does not close out the gender pay gap. Another important point is that it does not matter whether the woman has children or not, they will face wage gap regardless. This is a problem to almost half of the workforce who are women. A report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research on discrimination demonstrates that sex and race discrimination are a huge factor when considering in wage, hiring, and promotion process of workplaces. Overall, these problems affect the economics growth in lessening pay to specific people and prohibit promotions within workplaces.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Women-in-top-executive-positions-are-few-4360451.php
http://women-empowered.com/2013/03/the-glass-ceiling-vs-the-glass-escalator/
http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/pay-equity-and-discrimination
http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/
I find the idea that men tend to rise through the ranks faster than women even in female-dominated professions interesting. One likely cause of this is that the stereotypes of what makes a typical man match the stereotypes for a good leader (Goudreau). Interestingly enough, when men enter female-dominated professions, they tend to rise through the ranks faster than they would in a male-dominated work setting, possibly because when they are surrounded by female colleagues, there are fewer competitors among them who fulfill the stereotypical notions of what a leader should be, which makes it easier for men to be chosen for management positions in these types of jobs (Goudreau). I remember in Sheryl Sandberg’s TED Talk, she described how women that share identical leadership characteristics with men tend to be perceived as mean for their assertiveness, while men with these same characteristics are simply perceived as good leaders. So while it may seem that women can combat the glass escalator phenomenon by working on their leadership qualities, doing so may actually create another obstacle to getting promoted – being unliked at their job.
Goudreau, Jenna. “A New Obstacle For Professional Women: The Glass Escalator.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 21 May 2012. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
Your post was concerned with women pay and mobility through the work force, which almost mirrored my own discussion on the pay gap. Your post and the sources you use only help confirm it: the pay gap is a very real and serious issue. For women to be paid less then men simply because of gender, having nothing to do with productivity and the actual work and expertise they are paid for, is appalling and hypocritical. I also am not too well informed on the glass ceiling that women workers face when trying to advance in their own professional careers. I am aware that most CEO’s are male, and very few are female. Though, CEO’s, I assume, generally seem to be more of a monopoly of old white men, very rarely being women or minorities. I assume that this is because of a very personal chain of command, and CEO’s and high level employees are based more on connections and old time networking rather than effort, an entirely different problem, but still concerning. It seems that these old networks perpetuate their ideal of a good leader, usually being a white man, and that is the symbol, the staple, they look for. To get a fair assessment and fair representation, the entirely culture must be changed.
The statistics that you show about the pay gap are very evident that there is a visible issue. It came as a surprise to me that it is such a severe problem of women being paid 22% less than what men are paid for the same full time positions. Likewise discrimination and abuse are also huge problems in the workforce and in the 21st century, they really shouldn’t be. As a city that is so successful in the business world and still hanging on to archaic ideals is the problem we are facing. I agree that maternity leave may cause this glass ceiling that women face. On the other hand, men don’t want to be faced with a glass ceiling so they rarely if at all take a paternity leave from their job. This is due to traditional gender roles of the male being seen as the provider and the woman being seen as a caretaker. In general these gender roles are impractical in our society and should be changed to be more accepting of everyone.