While we have come a long way regarding women’s rights, there are still great strides that need to be made in order for gender equality to exist in the workforce. To recap my previous post, I mentioned three central problems surrounding the question of “gender and economic growth.” The first, and in my opinion the most primitive, is the gender pay gap. Women continue to make seventy-seven cents for every dollar a man earns. This issue makes little sense to me- how can America, one of the most advanced nations in the world, not provide equal pay for equal work? As I dug deeper into the issue I began to lose hope. How can we erase a problem deeply rooted in centuries old stereotypes? Conservatives in congress still believe it is the innate differences between men and women that cause us to make the life choices that we do, women still work less hours than men, and men still dominate the corporate ladder. It is going to be difficult to change these norms overnight. I believe we need to first give women all the tools they need to advance in the workforce. Sweden provides an excellent paradigm of how this can be accomplished. In Sweden, parents are provided with an extensive paid parental leave. This leave is shared between both the mother and the father, which is different from the US where often it is only the mother who is afforded maternity leave (and sometimes it is without pay). By providing both the mother and the father with paid childcare leave, the responsibility of parenting and working is divided evenly between spouses. As Sheryl Sandberg says it stereotypes will be abolished once “half our homes are run by men and half our institutions are run by women.”

The second issue I spoke of in my last blog post was with regards to the glass ceiling. Women are not advancing into leadership positions at the rate they should. Given the majority of bachelors and masters degrees are awarded to women, we should see that same statistic reflected in the job market. With my group from class, we discussed a new innovative solution that we think could be implemented here at City College. Growing up, I was always fortunate to go to the greatest schools and be surrounded by some truly inspiring female role models. This is not the case, however, for most women. We wish to start a mentoring program that would give young girls the motivation and support needed to advance to leadership positions. The program would start in high school. Women of success would visit girls and speak to them about their journey as well as provide them with opportunities to start their own success. We hope that once old enough, the same women who were once mentored will come back and mentor the next generation of young girls. The theory is that once young girls see women can be successful in leadership positions, they too will aspire to that same level of success. Just as men have created a great network, we hope to develop a strong female support chain.

References:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/22/can-the-gender-gap-be-solved.html

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100565268

In my previous post I mentioned a phenomenon known as the glass ceiling. This is an imaginary barrier that allows people, in my case specifically women, to see a higher position in their career, but not achieve it due to certain prejudices associate with their gender. The numbers are mind-blowing when you take a look at them; only 4.6% of Fortune 500 companies have a woman as their CEO. How can we fix this?

After looking into what is exactly causing this problem, I came up with a few ways it might be solved. The main issue seems to lie in societal norms. Since women are looked at as the caretakers, they are supposed to not have as much time for a job, and thus cannot commit to being a CEO. Times are changing and this isn’t the case anymore. Since more women are entering the workforce, and more women are making work a priority, the title of CEO should be more accessible to them. In order to do this some standards should be set. There should be policies instated requiring companies to at least consider women for higher-level positions. A certain percentage of potential employees should be women when companies are looking to hire, and not fulfilling this standard will result in some sort of fine. This will not only give more women a chance at showing what they can do, but it will open up the company’s eyes and show that women have the potential to do just as well as a man. Even if a woman is not hired for the first position applied for, the company may consider her for something else.

The other side to this issue is the insecurity in women about achieving these high-level positions. Since they believe these societal norms and are scared that they will never be considered for high-level positions, they don’t even take the chance to apply. In order to fix this an organization should be formed, one full of women with high success in these better positions. This organization’s task would be to essentially show-off women who have made it big, giving those who may not believe as much the confidence to try and get to the top. Counseling can be provided on stipulations that if success is achieved, the counselors receive some sort of compensation. Rallies and events will be formed to reach a mass amount of people, spreading confidence to go for high-level positions to many. The organization will be run of equal parts man and woman to show that everyone is equal and an organization with both genders can be successful.

In the end it comes down to changing mindsets. If the companies looking to hire would consider women, and women would consider applying to some of these high-level positions, the glass ceiling can be shattered bringing equality to another sector in our country. It is not an issue that can be tackled overnight, but with enough dedication on both sides of the issue, it is something that can be done.

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/report/2014/03/07/85457/fact-sheet-the-womens-leadership-gap/

A pressing issue today is that women perform the majority of unpaid care-related labor, and in doing so, end up working more than men but earning less over their lifetime. As a result, female senior citizens in the US are twice as likely to live in poverty as their male counterparts (Fidel). This problem can be tackled by increasing male participation in unpaid care-related labor, so that these tasks can be distributed more evenly among the genders. This way, women in the US will bear less of the economic burden associated with this type of labor. One way to get men to participate more in care-related labor is to encourage men to take paternity leave. Mothers take much longer parental leaves than fathers, some even having to permanently or temporarily exit the workforce or shift from full- to part-time. Women suffer because of this with a four percent decrease in earnings per child (Traister). If men began sharing the responsibility of parental leave with women, mothers would take less time off. For many women who receive none or very little paid leave, this would mean a shorter unpaid absence from work, and a smaller loss in earnings. Additionally, if men and women contributed more equally to parental leave, fewer employers would discriminate against hiring women of childbearing age. Although eighty-nine percent of fathers took time off after having a baby, nearly sixty-seven percent took less than a week off (Miller). Many new parents feel that it is much more appropriate for a mother to take a longer period of time off after having a baby, even at the expense of her career, than for a father to do so.

One way to encourage fathers to share parental leave more equally with mothers is by running a PSA-style ad campaign on the subway. The subway already runs similar ads, sponsored by the city, that encourage fathers to take a more active role in child-rearing (“10 Ways to be a Great Dad”). With the city’s cooperation, the paternity leave ads can become an extension of the existing ads. The message of the ads should focus on encouraging fathers to split parental leave more equally with the mothers of their children. Because paternity leave suffers from being perceived as unmasculine, the ads should use language that emphasizes that fathers who look after their children by taking paternity leave are strong.

Another gender-related economic problem is that women are underrepresented in leadership positions in the workforce. To combat this, my group and I will propose an initiative to create a mentorship organization between successful female faculty and alumni from City College and current female students from the College and on-campus high schools. This will not only provide young women who are about to start their careers with knowledge about how to become successful, but will also create a network that will help these women advance in their careers. This last point is especially important because as we discussed in class, although women tend to have larger social networks than men, men’s networks are of higher quality, which helps them to advance in their careers. We hope that building relationships with successful women who can provide them with valuable references when seeking jobs, recommend them for job openings, etc., will help young women achieve the same quality of networks that men have and hopefully advance their careers.

Works Cited

“10 Ways to Be a Great Dad.” NYC.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Fidel, Emma. “Women Live Retirement in Poverty at Higher Rates Than Men.” Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 25 July 2012. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.

Miller, Claire Cain. “Paternity Leave: The Rewards and the Remaining Stigma.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 08 Nov. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Traister, Rebecca. “Why Women Can’t Break Free from the Parent Trap.” New Republic. N.p., 03 Feb. 2015. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

In my previous post concerning issues in gender equality I discussed the implicit discrimination that exists in the workplace, especially those that target women. I also discussed the stigma surrounding men in the care giving fields and the need for men to be involved  in gender equality issues. Finally I discussed patterns of violence against women across the world.

These are all very complex issues. Long held biases against women definitely contribute to these issues. Gender equality is a goal most Americans want to achieve. A Harvard Business Review study found that “80 percent of women and men say they are convinced of the benefits of gender parity at all levels.” (Ferro) So why is it we have yet to reach this goal? This may be because many American do not even acknowledge or realize that gender biases exists. 49% of women and only 28% of men believe gender biases are still prevalent in the U.S. (Porter)

We must dissect more specific issues in gender inequality to form effective solutions. Implicit bias in the workplace is a difficult issue to tackle because these biases are implicit. Employers and employees need to become aware of the implicit biases that exist in the workplace. Increasing diversity in the workplace also discourages implicit biases. Offering an anonymous complaint panel will also encourage people to speak out against discrimination in the workplace.

The He for She campaign is an innovative solution that encourages men to become part of the fight for gender equality. He for She considers gender equality a human rights issue rather than a women’s rights issue. It asks men around the world to join the women’s rights movement. However, I do not think this campaign truly encourages men to become active.  As previously mentioned only 28% of men agree that gender inequality is an issue. It may be beneficial for the campaign to encourage men to share stories of how gender biases has affected them or people in their lives to truly reflect that these issues continue to exist. He For She also only encourages men to fight for women’s right. Instead it needs to encourage men to fight for all genders.

The NYPD respond to over 250,000 domestic violence incidents a year. Domestic violence is also the most common cause of injury to women aged 15 to 44. This reflects how common this issue is. There are several program in NYC that aid women who have been victims of domestic violence. However many people do not speak about their abuse from either fear or embarrassment. Most domestic violence incidents are very reported. I think a good solution to this is to create a community where people feel save and understand that violence is not an acceptable behavior and that encourages victims to report their abusers. This can be done through advertisements and outreach in educational and religious institutions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/opinion/sunday/why-gender-equality-stalled.html?_r=0

http://www.fastcompany.com/3036289/strong-female-lead/yes-gender-equality-is-a-mens-issue

http://time.com/3222543/5-feminist-myths-that-will-not-die/

http://www.heforshe.org/

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/crime_prevention/domestic_violence.shtml

http://www.cookross.com/docs/UnconsciousBias.pdf

In my previous post, I discussed three distinct problems concerning gender equality and the economic growth associated with it. The gender equality problems examined were: the wage gap, the gender disparity in management positions of companies, and the gender disparity in our own United States Senate. Here, I would like to delve into the possible solutions to these problems.

First and foremost, we must address the wage gap between men and women. In present-day America, a woman makes roughly 78 cents for every dollar a man makes. After being elected into office, the first piece of legislation signed by President Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The purpose of this act was to investigate and take action regarding pay discrimination based on gender. Since the signing of the bill, the wage gap has remained relatively stagnant. The bill hasn’t had much of an effect to date. The bill formed an Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force, whose duty is self-explanatory. The force is there to enforce current labor laws and encourage government officials to take more action surrounding the gap. One of the innovative methods it used to make the public aware of the gap was referred to as the Equal Pay App Challenge. This contest challenged the public to create applications available on smartphones that would raise awareness of the unfair nature of wages. 4 apps were selected as grand prize winners, all of which are available for free via the iTunes store. While this contest may have produced awareness for the wage gap, it had no real effect on the numbers associated with it. The wage gap has remained the same over the last few decades and economic growth has been limited as a result. In order to attack the gap, the Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force needs to do a better job. Countless numbers of companies find loopholes in existing legislation and this enables the wage gap to exist. If this task force can be aggressive and persistent in its efforts and even pass new legislation, fairness can be achieved with time. Areas of focus for the task force can be union representation, maternity leave, minimum wage, etc. Two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women. Therefore, raising the minimum wage would thus help close the wage gap. As equality slowly becomes attained, the economy will flourish as a result.

Next, I would like to touch on the gender disparity in management positions of companies along with the gender disparity in the US Senate. In my problems piece, a shocking statistic was brought to my attention. Women make up 53% of entry-level employees, 40% of managers, 35% of directors, 27% of vice presidents, 24% of senior vice presidents, and 19% of executives in the C-suite. A way that a solution can be achieved is to start from the ground up. A recent article from the Harvard Crimson reports that the Harvard Business School is now looking to target women-only colleges in an attempt to address the underrepresentation of women in its student body. With women currently underrepresented in business school, there is no wonder why men occupy the majority of management positions at the next level. If more schools of business were to take this approach, the number of women in management would surely increase as a result. This current gender disparity is not merely a product of employer bias. In MBA education, 1 in 3 American students are women. If universities can focus on recruiting women to their MBA programs, women in management positions will rise. This is the first step we can take as a nation to lessen both of these disparities noted above. If we can do this, economic growth will be guaranteed as a result.

Although these problems cannot be solved over night, persistent efforts will help combat the injustices associated with gender equality.

References:

1. http://rooseveltinstitute.org/new-roosevelt/how-fix-gender-wage-gap-going-far-beyond-app
2. http://www.dol.gov/equalpay/apps-winners.htm
3. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/4/8/hbs-women-colleges-recruitment/
4. http://poetsandquants.com/2013/06/11/the-mba-gender-gap-persists/