A study conducted by Bizjournals.com ranked 112 major occupational groups to determine where how those jobs sized up in terms of pay gaps.  The results paint a picture that is less than desirable for women in business.

Check out the top 10 most equitable occupation groups:

1. Dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers
2. Food preparation workers
3. Secondary school teachers
4. Cooks
5. Stock clerks and order fillers
6. Packers and packagers, hand
7. Bus drivers
8. Dispatchers
9. Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food
10. Counselors

Now let’s take a look at the 10 least equitable occupation groups (with #1 in the following list representing the worst, or least equitable occupation group of all):

Continue reading »

Lilly Ledbetter was a manager at Goodyear Tire for 19 years.  During her tenure, she suffered pay discrimination constantly receiving smaller salary increases than her male colleagues.  Ledbetter sued and the jury sided with her, but the Supreme Court said she should get nothing (5 to 4 ruling) because pay discrimination claims must be made within 180 days after pay is set.  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsberg dissented stating that most people don’t know their colleagues’ salaries.

In April, the Fair Pay Act reached the Senate (brought by Senators Edward Kennedy and Arlen Specter) that would change the 180 day time period to file a pay discrimination case.  Rather than 180 days from the time pay is set, the 180 day clock would restart with each discriminatory paycheck.

In response to the Fair Pay Act, Senator John McCain stated that what women really need to obtain equal pay is "training and education."  Suffice it to say, too many Senators held similar, disillusioned views, and the Fair Pay Act was not passed (it was just 3 votes short).

To help fight for fair pay, MomsRising.org has been collecting resumes from women to send to John McCain to demonstrate that the United States is filled with highly experienced and qualified women who deserve equal pay.  Today, women from MomsRising.org delivered 9,000 resumes to Senator John McCain in Washington, D.C. wearing sashes that said "Magnificently Overqualified Mother" and accompanied by television cameras from networks such as CBS and CNN.

Kudos to MomsRising.org for fighting this fight!

I read an unsettling article on CIO.com today called “Do Women in Business Really Matter?“  It disturbs me for a few reasons, bus most of all, I can’t believe CIO would allow such a one-side, politically incorrect article to be published.  That says a lot about their brand, and not good things.  

Rather than swaying you by summarizing the article in my own words here, I’d like to ask you to take a look at the article (use the link above) then return here to Women On Business and share your opinion. 

While women trail men in the business gender gap, they lead the show when it comes to the social media gender gap. It makes sense. The interesting part about this from a business perspective is the following:

Will the realization that women dominate social media mean companies will hire more female executives to lead the teams targeting Web 2.0?

Only time will tell. Already, companies offering products strictly for women are led by men, so a significant shift in hiring and promotion is unlikely. We’ll have to wait and see, but this new information does provide some hope that a shift could (and should) occur in the near future. Of course, the companies that realize this and change their leadership and hiring models sooner rather than later will ultimately reap the largest rewards.

Tags: women in business, social media, social media statistics, social web, Web 2.0, women on business, businesswomen, female executive, women business leaders, gender gap

All I can say is, “Wow.”  Check out this info from MomsRising.org, a website dedicated to workplace discrimination issues:

Yesterday, the Senate failed to pass the Fair Pay Act, which would allow women to demand equal pay for equal work. Senator McCain (R-AZ), who didn’t even come to vote, said that instead of legislation allowing them to demand equal pay, women simply need “education and training.” Not only is his information wrong — women still are all too often paid less for the same work, even though they have the same education and training — he’s also sending a message to our nation, to our sons and daughters, that this pay gap is okay, and it’s women’s fault for being paid less.

So to send a message to Congress, and specifically Senator McCain, [women are signing] this petition for Fair Pay and sending Senator McCain their resumes — to show that women have plenty of education, what we need is Fair Pay. You should send yours too!

http://www.momsrising.org/fairpaymccain

Don’t worry if you don’t have your resume perfected — you can just write a quick note.Women now make up 58% of college graduates and nearly half of the labor force, but still earn less pay for the same work as men. Worse yet, mothers only make 73 cents to a man’s dollar, for the exact same job. College graduate, high school graduate, law school diploma, nursing degree, whatever your training; women should make equal pay for equal work. Don’t you agree?

Unbelievable.  How could Senator McCain make such an ignorant comment?  It’s incredibly insulting and demonstrates the problem quite clearly.  Let’s try to make a difference by signing the online petition at MomsRising.org.  You can also paste your resume or include a bio outlining your credentials along with your petition submission.  If you can’t get the petition to submit with your resume pasted into the provided box, you can delete the resume text, and your petition submission should go through fine without it.  Then you can email your resume separately to resumes@momsrising.org.

It just takes a second to sign the petition.  Go do it now …. here’s the link again, http://www.momsrising.org/fairpaymccain.

Hat tip to Kristen King at BizChicksRule.com for this one! 

You can read more about the Senate vote and John McCain’s comments in the following articles:

Republican Senators Block Pay Discrimination Measure (New York Times)

McCain Opposes Equal Pay Bill in Senate (Associated Press)

And I just wrote about the gender gap in pay on Women On Business: Women Make 77 Cents for Each Dollar Men Make in the U.S.

Did you know that Tuesday, April 22nd was Equal Pay Day?  I didn’t.  In fact, I’ve never heard of it.  Why isn’t this day publicized more?

According to BizWomen.com, Equal Pay Day was created in 1996 by the National Committee on Pay Equity to draw attention to the inequality in pay between men and women in the United States.  It falls on a Tuesday in April each year. 

The importance of this holiday is undeniably significant.  Lauren Lawley Head said it all in her post on BizWomen.com called Pay Gap Worth Steaming Over when she listed these facts:

• Nationally, women make 77 cents for every $1 men earn.
• In terms of annual pay, it took women from January 1, 2007 until April 2008 to make as much money as their male colleagues had made by December 31, 2007.
• In terms of weekly pay, women have to work until the following Tuesday to catch up to the earnings of men in equivalent positions.

What do you think about National Pay Day?  Have you heard of it?  Have you participated in any activities related to National Pay Day?  Leave a comment and share your experience and/or thoughts.

Just a reminder, it’s International Women’s Day. Take some time to visit the International Women’s Day website to learn more about IWD and the 2008 IWD events!

Tags: International Women’s Day, IWD, IWD 2008, International Women’s Day 2008, women in business, businesswomen, women on business

Catalyst has released an overview of their most recent study about women working in the field of technology. The study shows that while women are making strides in high-tech careers (in comparison to study results from earlier in the decade), they still face significant barriers to equality.

Women in the high-tech industry cited the following problems:

1. A lack of role models and mentors
2. A lack of access to networks
3. A lack of satisfaction with supervisor interactions
4. A lack of opportunities to voice opinions during decision-making processes

Despite these barriers, women who participated in the study were generally satisfied with their jobs and the environments in which they work. However, the number of women in technical jobs has declined in recent years.

The need for employees with skills in the technical field continues to grow and get more and more competitive. Coompanies need to find ways to address the areas of concern for women to not only increase employee satisfaction but also to attract and retain the best technical talent.

Tags: women in business, Catalyst, equality research, women on business, businesswomen, female technical, technical careers, women in high-tech industry

“To improve diversity, women may hold the key, but men generally still control the lock.” Olivier Marchal, head of the French operation of Bain & Co. (source)

That quote says it all. For companies to thrive in the future (and frankly, in the present), they need to learn how to create a more diverse leadership team. Women play an integral part in that diversity. Research from Catalyst shows that Fortune 500 companies with three or more women on the board of directors experience returns on equity on average of 83% higher than companies with just a token woman or two on their boards. Continue reading »

Businesswomen living in Australia not only have trouble getting promoted to top-level jobs, but once they get there, they’re grossly underpaid in comparison to men at the same level. According to an article on Forbes.com this week, Australian women hold just 7% of the senior executive jobs in the country’s top 200 public companies. Most of those women earn half as much as their male colleagues in the same positions. Continue reading »