The gender pay gap seems to worry some politicians and NGOs that promote women’s rights, but not the majority of business leaders. Of course, it is not politically correct to be seen as doing little to address this type of discrimination. So governments and entrepreneurs resort to creating a perception of an inclusive culture.
The gender pay gap is different from unequal pay when women are paid less for the same work. The gender pay gap is a result of a mixture of conservative business culture and a weak political commitment by policymakers to bring about the changes that will help to resolve this problem.
The Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College, London conducted an analytical study to determine what elements are needed in corporate culture to promote the narrowing of the pay gap. In the UK the gap is 17 per cent on a national level for all workers. It would be ideal but probably unrealistic to have local businesses, equality NGOs and public policymakers getting their heads together to measure our gender pay gap. It may reveal some worrying realities. When ignorance is bliss, it is foolish to be wise!
For some years now more women than men are graduating with a first degree and also pursuing their studies for a master or a PhD. Yet in the workplace, highly-qualified female workers are at times paid less than men with inferior academic qualifications. The UK study attributes this pay discrepancy to “unobserved factors” that cannot be explained by an analysis of underlying data.
While it is a fact that many women have fewer years of full-time work on their CVs mainly as a result of the family obligations that come with motherhood, other factors may be difficult to measure. Discrimination and harassment by employers are examples of unobserved factors. Other examples are personal choices that many women have to make because the culture in most workplaces fails to acknowledge the challenges that working women have to face.
The debate on bridging the gender pay gap generates more heat than light. Governments want to be seen as progressive and liberal by empowering women in society in general and the workplace in particular.
Bridging gender pay gap debate generates more heat than light
Business leaders are equally guilty of talking too much about equal opportunities for all but doing very little about this issue. Some businesses encourage the setting up of a women’s employee group and report on their activities extensively in the media and their annual report to shareholders.
Others pretend to be even more generous by offering female professional employees training and networking opportunities after working hours and outside the office. Don’t employers recognise that many women increasingly have to care for young children and at times also elderly relatives while they try to juggle career and family commitments?
Other organisations believe that they are doing enough to bridge the pay gap by offering female workers mentoring facilities. Mentors offer advice to working women on how to cope with family and work commitments. This is very different from smoothing out the road that leads to career advancement and promotions.
It is also quite fashionable today to introduce diversity training in business organisations. Mangers are encouraged to adopt non-discriminatory practices to promote equality amongst the workers they lead.
The Institute for Women’s Leadership report reveals a worrying finding. A study of 150,000 candidates for the Spanish judiciary found that female candidates were less likely to be picked when a committee had a greater share of women, while men were more likely to be chosen when a committee had at least one women on it.
The change will come when employers abandon the belief that part-time workers are less committed and that those working exceptionally long hours are super workers. Female achievement can never be encouraged when such perceptions are ingrained in business culture.
Unfortunately, some business leaders are ‘social cloners’ who favour the promotion and employment of people like themselves. If you have such leaders sitting on promotion boards, most women start with a severe handicap as their diverse commitments prevent them from fulfilling their bosses’ expectations.
Encouraging men to engage more in childcare is a good starting point, even if it ignores some of the costs of making this strategy effective: generous parental leave for both men and women. However, sharing family responsibilities and the incentives to make this a common practice is worth encouraging and shows sensitivity to the unfairness of the gender pay gap.