Transcript Why—and How—to Make the Workplace Friendly

Forget the Glass Ceiling:
It’s Time to Redesign the
Building
Ellen Bravo
January 23, 2008
Women’s Faculty Council
Medical College of Wisconsin
How are Women Doing?
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Percentage of female
CEOs in Fortune 500
companies?
Percentage of women
among top earners?
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Women's earnings as %
of men?
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Which professions have
internal pay equity:
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Employment area
where great gains in the
last few decades?
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Law
Medicine
Journalism
Internet Professionals
Financial Managers
Retail Sales
Poultry Workers
Secretaries
Corporate Managers
Which Countries Lack Paid
Leave?
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Bangladesh
 Botswana
 Brazil
 Cameroon
 Canada
 India
 Iran
 Mexico
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Mongolia
 Netherlands
 Norway
 Swaziland
 Sweden
 U.S.
 Zambia
At the Top
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Women CEO’s in
Fortune 500: 2.6%
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Women among top
earners: 6%
Women in Government,
Academia in U.S.
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U.S. Senate – 16%
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Governors – 18%
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U.S. Congress –
16%
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Tenured faculty –
25%
Area of Great Gain in U.S.
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Moonlighting (holding
more than one job) –
women were 70% of
new entrants, almost
half of the category
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A third of these women
work two or more parttime jobs
Women’s Pay in U.S.
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Women's earnings
77% of men's.
 African-American
women 72%
 Latinas 58%
The Pay Gap
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Law: 70%
Medicine: 77%
Internet Professionals: 88%
Financial Managers: 69%
Retail Sales: 64%
Poultry Workers: 71%
Secretaries: 90%
Corporate Managers: 68%
More than 90% of long-term low adult earners are
female
Real Pay Gap Much Larger
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Wage gap looks at one
year, full-time workers.
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Study of 15 years, all
work hours, gap is 38%
of men’s pay.
Study by Stephen J. Rose and Heidi Hartmann,
IWPR, “A Man’s Labor Market: The Long Term
Earnings Gap.”
Realities about the Gap
 Half
the narrowing comes from loss of
pay of men, particularly men of color
 Gap
is widest for women with highest
education and longest hours
 Mommy
gap has increased
WHY DO WOMEN EARN SO
LITTLE MONEY?
Show of Hands
Explanations?
 Women
need less.
 Women deserve less.
 Women’s jobs require little skill or
training.
 Women do their jobs out of love.
 Women trade income for flexibility.
Explanation?
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Women are too shy
– they don’t ask
Women earn less because:
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Their employers pay
them less
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In “women’s” jobs
In same jobs as men
Fewer in top jobs
History – devaluing of
women and work
associated with women
Biased Job Evaluations
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Female bindery workers get no points for
binding skill - all women know how to sew
 Nurses jobs unpleasant? “Do you work with
grease?
 Omitting a range of tasks related to women’s
work - eg, dealing with the public, handling
multiple tasks, consequence of error.
U.S. Laws Not Enough
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Equal Pay Act of 1963 – by
then most women and men
didn’t do same jobs
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Civil Rights Act of 1964 –
gender added as a joke
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Costs of sexual harassment.
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Recent Supreme Court
decision on pay
discrimination.
Why Are So Few Women at
the Top?
Your views?
Good Old Boy Network
 More
than half of the chairs of the
boards of Fortune 500 companies are
sons of former board chairs of those
companies.
 80%
of job openings are filled by word
of mouth with no advertising
Other Barriers
 Work-family
policies: family values too
often end at the workplace door.
 Fringe
rather than core
 Lack of reduced time – or penalty
attached
 Notion of success as face time
 Lowest-paid, least flexible
How the US Stacks Up: Paid
Leave
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100% Pay:
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Bangladesh
Brazil
Cameroon
India
Netherlands
Norway
Sweden
Zambia
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Partial Pay
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Canada – 50 weeks, 55%
Botswana – 12 weeks 25%
Iran, 16 weeks, 66%
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Mongolia – 17 weeks, 70%
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No Pay
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Swaziland
U.S.
Not So Family-Friendly
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Most women in U.S.
have no paid
maternity leave
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No federal law in
U.S. requires paid
sick days – half the
workforce, threefourths of low-wage,
have none.
Problems with U.S. FMLA
Nearly half the private
sector workforce isn’t
covered
Doesn’t cover siblings,
same-sex partners
Doesn’t cover routine
illness
It’s unpaid.
Additional Reasons
 Mommy
penalty (even with stronger
policies) – mothers 44% less likely be
hired, paid $11,000 less (Correll study)
 Part-time inequity
 Lack of bargaining rights
 Intersection with race discrimination.
 Percent increases, what you made at
your last job
Corporate Culture
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Jack Welch:
“People who publicly
struggle with work-life
balance problems and
continually turn to the
company for help get
pigeonholed as ambivalent,
entitled, uncommitted,
incompetent – or all of the
above.”
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Problems even at many
“best places to work.”
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“Aha” moments
What’s at Stake
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High cost of being poor
Well-being of children
and families
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highest child poverty,
infant mortality rates in
industrialized world
Public health
High costs for
employers – turnover
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150% of salary; $5500
for low-wage workers.
Redesign the Building
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Revalue women’s work
Make work-family core
instead of fringe – related to
how work is designed
Change concept success,
what it takes to advance
Make formal, available to all
Make affordable, accessible
Quality part-time - equity in
pay, benefits, advancement
Accountability for managers
Why: Not a Favor to Women
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A better way to do
business.
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Talent
Retention
Customer Satisfaction
Fit with mission
Reputation in the
community
Examples:
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SAS
Costco vs. Wal-Mart
What are the Solutions:
Employers
Get buy-in on what’s at stake
 Conduct an audit: pay, training,
advancement, use of policies
 Team evaluate policies,recommend revisions
 Look at practice, not just policies on paper
 Change attitudes with training, role models
 Affirmative action
 Build skills – mentoring, scholarships, career
development paths
 Involve front-line staff.
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Guarantee for All
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Smart employers will
do this on their own.
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Not all – need public
policies as well.
Public Policy Changes
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Pay:
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Pay equity - unbiased job
evaluations
Equity for part-timers
Increase bargaining
power
End family responsibility
discrimination
Increase training
Gender equity on boards,
management teams
Require policies, training
re sexual harassment
Public Policy Changes
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Value Families at Work
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Expand access and
affordability of FMLA
Guarantee paid sick
days.
Expand definition family
– same-sex, sibs, etc
Right to request flex.
End mandatory overtime.
Child Care
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Public investment, quality
After-school care
How Do We Get There?
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The best way to get
what you need for
yourself is to work
with others on
behalf of everyone.
Increased Collaboration
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Connecting the dots:
School nurses . Women . Seniors . Labor . Progressive
employers . Moms Rising . Faith-based . Disabilities
groups . Chronic disease . Alzheimers Association .
AIDS groups . Mental health organizations . PTAs .
Principals . School boards . Social workers .
Cities/counties groups . Citizen Action . Welfare rights/antipoverty groups . Children’s groups . Foster children .
Work-family researchers . Legal groups . Parents of adult
disabled . Adoption groups . Immigrant advocates .
Racial justice groups . Human Rights groups . LGBT
groups . Non-profit associations . Insurers . Women’s
business groups . AAUW . YWCA . Planned Parenthood
. Family Physicians
Making Progress in the States
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Winning forms of paid leave
 expanding TDI to include
family leave:
 California won!
 New Jersey
 New York
 creating new form of social
insurance:
 Washington won!
 Illinois
 Massachusetts
Making Progress in the States
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Making progress on guaranteeing
protection:
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Sick days:
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Family Care:
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Maine, Washington
Expanding FMLA to domestic partners:
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San Francisco won!
DC will win!
Massachusetts. Maine, Milwaukee
Many planning.
California won, Maine winning
FMLA for school activities:
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Georgia
Wisconsin
Within the House
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Housework is work
to be done by those
who live in the
house.
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Equal relationships
are best for kids, for
couples.