As a female executive, I need to say it. I have a bone to pick with how corporate America pays and promotes women in the United States. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Most of us have seen the depressing stats about how women are paid in the United States and the (lack of) leadership positions they hold. But, just as a refresher, I decided to look up some of those stats again.
- March 24, 2021, was Equal Pay Day in the United States. That means that for an average woman in America to have made what my male counterparts made in 2020, I needed to work until March 24, 2021.
- The female to male earnings ratio in 2019 (the most recent year for which we have those statistics) was 82.3%. (I must admit I was even more depressed with myself when I realized I was somewhat pleasantly surprised by this number).
- During the first quarter of 2021, 41 Fortune 500 companies were led by women. That’s just 8.2%, but an improvement from 2019 when there were 33 and 2018 when there were 24.
It’s important to note that these statistics are even more abysmal for women of color.
Corporate America: we need to do much, much, much better. But I guess the better question is, who within corporate America needs to do better?
One theory about who needs to do better – one that I have heard too many times to count – is that the women need to do better. I cannot tell you the number of times I have had conversations with men or women about pay parity and the other person tells me, “women just need to negotiate better, Katie. That pay gap wouldn’t exist if women negotiated for their salary more effectively.”
There are a lot of problems with telling women they need to “negotiate better” to solve this problem. To start, it is victim shaming, offensive, and insulting. It points the finger in the entirely wrong direction. A negotiation for a salary is one where the employer has far more data than the prospect. How many places have you worked where you knew what all your counterparts made? How are you supposed to negotiate for equal pay when you don’t know you aren’t being paid equally? If I, as a woman, have always been paid less than my male counterparts, how would I even know that? And at my next job, even though I make more and am doing better than I was, how do I know if I am still making less than my male counterparts?
Another theory is that corporate America is to blame. And that means all of us. All of us who are executives, managers, and hirers are the problem. But if we are the problem, we are also the solution. So we all need to step up. I would suggest by starting with the following:
- Review your salaries now. Ensure you are paying women what you are paying men in the same or similar roles.
- Review your executive team, your board, and those holding management positions. Are they held equally by men and women? If not, ask yourself why that is the case. Don’t let “there are no good women out there” be your excuse. You don’t break glass ceilings and tear down this divide unless you give women a chance and are the ones to elevate them. Think outside of the box. Have you worked with a brilliant female engineer, scientist, lawyer, accountant, etc. in your area of business? I bet she would be a great addition to your leadership team. Be the one to elevate her.
- Look at your parental leave and family leave policies. Are you treating men and women equally? If you aren’t, think about the message you are sending about your expectations of employees. And if you don’t have a parental leave policy or family leave policy, think about the message that sends to women with families about how serious you are about enabling them to enter and stay in the workforce.
- Don’t stop there. Make a commitment to make your company the solution, which we have done at One Energy and will continue to do.
But what not to do? Don’t tell me, or any woman, to simply “negotiate better.” This is a cop-out. And it will get us no further along in fixing the abysmal statistics I outlined above. It will not get us to a place where women and men are valued and rewarded equally for their work in this country. Women don’t need to negotiate better. Corporate America needs to do better.
Katie Treadway is the Head of Regulatory Affairs at One Energy.
