Women in business

Women in Business Case Study My issue is the gender gap in pay. This means that women in the workplace are making less than men coworkers. I chose this because as a senior going into to the work force this issue is something I must keep in mind when seeking a salary. Some say that women make less than men because men are more aggressive during the bargaining process where women are more likely to accept the first offer. This is a problem I saw in internship because very few of my class mates knew their true worth. We as graduates will be happy getting paid after school. Yet men are searching out the average pay in their field and want to be competitively paid. With women there is a feeling that we are not encouraged to negotiate pay.

The Gender Gap in pay is an issue affecting the world. If 50% of the world’s population is women then ideally 50% of the world’s income should go to women. Women are experiencing an increase in education, with women now 21% more likely to graduate with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Yet men still enjoy a pay increase of 33% compared to their female counterparts.

The United States tries to pride itself on being on top of gender issues but with the wage gap, the United States falls to a weak 65th place in world standings. Statistically, countries with lower wages overall have a smaller gap. The gender gap sometimes referred to as the glass ceiling. This is so called because of the appearance of similar earnings potential to the male class with the reality of a stopper at a certain wage level.

Women naturally have a longer, healthier life which should mean more companies would want women as employees but governmental power and company power are still mainly controlled by men. This, in some countries, is due to the fact that traditions promote male dominance in many areas of society. This can be anywhere from lesser education to domestic violence. Such as in India where women are not allowed to check out books from a library because they will distract the men who are studying. This causes a gap because men see it that they are more important and women see that they are not an investment. If women are treated as lesser in education when it comes to getting pay they will feel like they are not worth as much as they are. Male dominance has been the paradigm since the beginning of time.

Naturally changing this will take a long time and lead to a great deal of conflict. Men have been raised that they can do anything. Such as with children’s games, boys race and play war. These games promote winning and control. Whereas women are more likely to play with dolls and kitchen sets. These games promote caring qualities and gender roles of staying home and not being in control. Even with parenting, men are placed in control when mothers say “wait till your father gets home.” Women are allowed to be in control of the house where men control outside of the home. If women are encouraged to take control at an early age they are more likely to want to be in control when they grow up. In order to shrink the pay gap women need

to be raised that they can own companies or rule countries. Women only have equal education in 25 of 142 countries. Sheryl Sandburg suggests leading in because this will allow you to create a more dominant stance.

Women can use this challenge to stand out. If you are one of the few female CEOs you are allowed to bring in new viewpoints and are looked to as role-models. This is also a risk because if you fail then it gives others a chance to blame your gender. If a female CEO has losses a male competitor could say this is why women should not be CEOs because they cannot control a company. They do not look at the reasons why they look at the person. Say Company A is owned by Sandra and Company B is controlled by Tom. If Company A’s profits drop by 10% in a quarter and Company B gains 10% in profits, media and other outlets will blame Sandra on the losses not necessarily because market factors were simply unfavorable. Company B may have launched the best phone of the year. This has nothing to do with the gender of head of the Company. Yet someone will always blame Sandra for company losses since she is in a man’s world, rather than the product.

The Wage Gap, by Gender and Race (median annual earnings of black men and women, Hispanic men and women, and white women as a percentage of white men's median annual earnings)

White Black Hispanic White Black Hispanic Year men men men women women women 1970 100% 69.0%

n.a.

58.7%

48.2%

n.a.

1975 100

74.3

72.1%

57.5

55.4

49.3%

1980 100

70.7

70.8

58.9

55.7

50.5

1985 100

69.7

68.0

63.0

57.1

52.1

1990 100

73.1

66.3

69.4

62.5

54.3

1992 100

72.6

63.3

70.0

64.0

55.4

1994 100

75.1

64.3

71.6

63.0

55.6

1995 100

75.9

63.3

71.2

64.2

53.4

1996 100

80.0

63.9

73.3

65.1

56.6

1997 100

75.1

61.4

71.9

62.6

53.9

1998 100

74.9

61.6

72.6

62.6

53.1

1999 100

80.6

61.6

71.6

65.0

52.1

2000 100

78.2

63.4

72.2

64.6

52.8

2003 100

78.2

63.3

75.6

65.4

54.3

2004 100

74.5

63.2

76.7

68.4

56.9

2006 100

72.1

57.5

73.5

63.6

51.7

2010 100

74.5

65.9

80.5

69.6

59.8

Source: U.S. Current Population Survey and the National Committee on Pay Equity; also Bureau of Labor Statistics: Weekly and Hourly Earnings Data from the Current Population Survey.

I think in the next twenty years it is all about education. We need for women to be seen as equal investments as their male classmates. If we take away the idea that woman distract men and teach men to respect and see their female classmates as equals. At this moment

women are seen as distractions in the learning fields even though we are more likely to graduate with a higher degree. The earlier in life that women are seen as equal and with respect, the better. This will create more doctors and lawyers which are high paying fields.

Women will also be taught their worth in the next twenty years then they will know how much to ask for when going in to the job field.

I learned researching this topic that this issue is not something that can magically be changed like many people perceive it is something that will need to be continually worked on in order to create a better world. I also learned that unlike what you think would be true women in third world countries have a smaller pay gap because the poverty is so great. Also it is interesting to learn that the countries who are the worse are not counties you think of strong women coming from the worst ranking came from South Korea followed by Russia. The wage gap is shrinking but at an extremely low rate with the US just gaining 1%. I think from my research it is because other problems seem more important and women are not as vocal so we are put at the wayside. Though we are finding smarter ways to solve these problem women are using education to overcome this challenge.

References http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst//biggest-gender-gap-in-earnings-countries

http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/27/news/economy/global-gender-pay-gap/ http://time.com/14153/global-gender-pay-gap-map/ http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/10/31/women-more-likely-to-graduate-collegebut-still-earn-less-than-men http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2014/global-gender-gap.aspx http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/indwm/ http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/05/28/3442271/female-ceos-pay-gap/ http://forumblog.org/2013/01/so-can-women-have-it-all/ The Wage Gap by Gender & Race Timeline History (White, Black, Hispanic, Men & Women) http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0882775.html#ixzz3ImqUZCre