In about a year and a half, I’ll be fully thrown into the “real world,” one where I’ll have to pay bills and own more than two outfits that are suitable for a business casual workplace. With the eventual shopping spree that will happen in J.Crew, I will also be crowned the title of being a “Woman in the Workforce.”
This is a title that I will carry with bittersweet feelings. On the one hand, I am excited to do my part in building status for women in the workforce and creating a better work environment. I’ve met some fantastic women working in a variety of fields (journalism, education and science). They are some of the kindest and brightest in their workplace, consistently produce great work and are an inspiration to co-workers.
On the other hand, I am not looking forward to the difficulties that women in the workforce face. In the United States, women still get paid less than men for doing the same job. According to The Institute for Women’s Policy Research, “In 2013, female full-time workers made only 78 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 22 percent.”
It has been 51 years since the Equal Pay Act passed, yet there is still this 22 percent gap. If this is the pace that change is taking, it will likely take at least 50 years until women will get paid the same as men. I don’t know about you, but I am not willing to wait 50 years in order to receive equal pay. I hope to be retired by then and not arguing about why I don’t deserve less as a woman despite producing the same work as my male colleagues.
Despite the progress that has been made, it is important that we still discuss women in the workplace. On Thursday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was asked how women could approach the topic of getting a raise. He stated that there was no need for women to ask for a raise. They simply had to believe in the system and have faith.
How could Nadella expect women to believe in a system that still hasn’t produced equal pay 50 years after an act was passed to ensure equality?
Since that statement, Nadella has apologized, saying that he was mistaken and wrong. But the fact remains that it was his first instinct to say that answer, and to what degree he believes it, we will never really know. His response is all too similar to those I have heard before from many people, most being men.
The problem is that people believe there is enough equality for women in the workforce. That because we are allowed to work and because we can showcase the few women who are in powerful positions, we think there is no problem to solve. The facts are that there is much more inequality than in just pay. Women are less likely than men to hold high positions or climb the ladder in their professions.
Many work places do not provide paid maternity leave to mothers, and usually, women are either forced to quit or fired. On that note, there is an injustice to men as well. Rarely any work places in the United States offer paternity leave to dads.
I once had a conversation with some of my guy friends regarding women in the workforce. They tried to tell me that from a business perspective, it is in a company’s economic favor to let go of women during maternity leave, or not pay them.
Though I understood that viewpoint, I cannot stand for it. Women should not be punished for being mothers. They deserve to receive pay no matter what. A company should find room in their budget to treat all employees fairly.
My friends asked me how I could go about changing something that cannot be changed. From what I saw, they only thought it could not be changed because they had not witnessed it yet. We can never quite believe something we’ve never seen. Sometimes, this is why new ideals are so rejected. We fear what change will bring and how it will affect the comfortable system we’ve built.
I refuse to work in inequality that is masked as comfort. As a woman (and a human being in general. I promise I’m not an alien), I feel that it is my duty to help to bring about this change in the workforce.
Women in the newsroom are not a popular sight. Often the journalism world is crowded with male editors and staff. This has been changing slowly in the past few decades, and I hope that the future will bring equality in numbers and in views. If I am treated no differently than my male co-workers as I work on writing stories and producing research for hours on end, I should be paid no differently.
