“In the United States, the study shows that female employees still tend to be concentrated in entry- or mid-level positions, and that the biggest barrier to female leadership isn’t parenthood or opting out (as conventional wisdom would have it), but “masculine or patriarchal corporate culture” and a “lack of mentors.” Women still make 78 cents for every dollar a man earns in the United States, according to the National Committee on Pay Equity—an inequity that is repeated the world over—and one that is often blamed on motherhood. (As The Economist recently put it, ”it’s motherhood, not sexism” that is holding women back.) But as this study and a slew of recent evidence shows, the problem is far bigger than motherhood alone. A new Catalyst survey shows that young MBA graduates make some $4,600 less than their male counterparts from the moment they step foot in the workforce; U.S. education data shows young women, a year out of college, bring home just 80 percent what their male colleagues do, regardless of profession. “Young women start in jobs that are lower paid, with lower status, and they have less job satisfaction overall,” says Herminia Ibarra, a professor at INSEAD, the European Institute of Business Administration, and one of the study’s authors.
Whatever Happened to the Gender Gap? (via Newsweek)
I expect far better from the Economist. The opinion piece they ran declared workplace sexism dead:
Motherhood, not sexism, is the issue: in America, childless women earn almost as much as men, but mothers earn significantly less.
I…just…am angered by this. Who decided that women are the only ones who raise children? Obviously we give birth to them but I seem to recall that there is another person necessary to that process. Stay at home dads of the world need to start stepping up to help disprove this ancient idea that women are the only ones who raise kids. Also, I believe that earning “almost as much” does not equal earning the same which indicates that sexism isn’t dead anyhow.
Ok, now that I’ve ranted about that, I would like to rant about this:
The same imbalance can even apply to the Web, where the founder of a popular copywriting Web site, “Men With Pens,” revealed late last year that “he” was actually a she. “It’s a fact that the majority of business is conducted by men,” James Chartrand (she continues to use her nom de Web) told NEWSWEEK. “So I assumed, if I choose a male name I’ll be viewed as somebody who runs a company, not a mom sitting at home with a child hanging off her leg.” (Chartrand said her business doubled once she began using a male name.)
In the original interview Chartrand confides that her pay rate doubled when she adopted the male name. Doubled. Oh hello sexism, good to see you.
