November thought piece: Clinton, Equal Pay and Gender Equality
Hilary Rodham Clinton – arguably the most experienced presidential candidate of all time lost to Donald Trump, a man who has no political or military experience, which is a first for a US president. On this side of the Atlantic, we celebrated or should I say commiserated Equal Pay Day on Thursday, 10 November. This is the day from which full time female employees are essentially working for free until the end of the year due to the gender pay disparity.
At a recent senior women’s breakfast event, I reflected with some of the attendees on the barriers that continue to hinder women from: (i) progressing to senior positions within organisations; and (ii) being fairly compensated. I was informed of the concept known as “glass wall” effect, which is similar to the “glass ceiling” although its focus is on the barriers that prevent women from moving to positions that have a promotional ladder. Simply speaking, whereas the glass ceiling boxes women into certain roles, the glass wall works laterally and blocks the opportunity for women to be promoted in the first place.
I suspect that the glass walls, ceilings and other transparent structural barriers are the reason why women continue to be paid less than their male counterparts and why Mrs Clinton is not currently the US President-Elect. For instance, some of the criticisms I have read about Mrs Clinton are that she is “cold”, “aloof” and has a “shrill” voice. Would a man have been criticised for being cold/aloof or would he have been viewed as statesmanlike? It’s my belief that such criticism is in part due to unconscious bias and the certain expectations we have on both genders which can prove very difficult to overcome. Perhaps this is the reason why narrowing the gender pay gap remains such an arduous task.
The other elephant in the room as to female advancement is the issue of pregnancy and maternity leave. According to the Fawcett Society, the pay gap widens for 12 years after a woman gives birth. Many women also feel that if they want to have a fulfilling family life they cannot do this while also juggling a successful career. There are no easy answers to this issues. In my view, gender pay reporting while helpful will not be the magic bullet to eradicate gender pay disparity. This will not occur until we, as a society, have a honest conversation about the roles we have assigned to each gender and in particular the notion that being a parent is to be a female led role.