Newsflash: The 2010 Gender Gap-Workplace Equality Is Still a Myth

Have we filled the gender gap? The authors of this article prove that though women have 'come a long way,' we still have gains to make in the workplace. Bennett and Ellison clearly provide multiple facts and examples that support the reality that gender equality in the corporate world does not exist. Despite the increase of women in the workforce, within the U.S. and around the world, the advancement of women in the workplace has increased minimally.

Although women now make up the majority of college graduates and law school graduates, only 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs and the minority of law firm partners and politicians are women. Many employers think that simply hiring women makes the workplace equal, but women “still make 78 cents for every dollar a man earns in the United States, according to the National Committee on Pay Equity.” 78 cents for every dollar? Still? Now, I suppose I must first commend women for doing so well overall; women comprise 52% of U.S. workers, a remarkable increase since the days of Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique. Yet what would Friedan think? Would she praise the gains that women have made in the workplace, as opposed to questioning the missing element from their lives as homemakers? Perhaps at first. But I believe she would argue for gender equity, as would Gloria Steinem, Adrienne Rich, Ellen DuBois and the other new wave feminist thinkers we have studied. All these women argue that where we are is not enough; Steinem even asks, in her "Sex, Lies & Advertising" piece: "Can't we do better than this?" Though she refers to the portrayal of women in ads, the message applies to gender inequality in the workplace. And we can do better. But how?
The authors cite that the biggest obstacle to workplace equality is generally perceived as motherhood. Yet"the problem is far bigger than motherhood alone;" the article insists that women without families suffer from the gender gap as well. Today's innumerable resources for working mothers explain how such a barrier no longer prevents women from success in the workplace. Day care, nannies, Au pairs and the like provide for women who choose to work while they raise their children. So how is it that even in industries such as journalism, film, broadcasting, even the web, in which women appear to serve as the majority of employees, still do not quite compete with their male co-workers? For example, a female founder of a popular copywriting web site changed her web name to male and actually enjoyed double the economic success. Why could she have not made such money under her true, female name?
A Catalyst study and other data show that legal enforcement against gender discrimination has not done its job. Ibarra, one of the study’s authors, instead blames “culture, culture, culture” as the roadblock to encouraging the advancement of women towards economic equality. It is our “masculine or patriarchal corporate culture” that poses the biggest impediment to women rising in the workplace. Is this male-dominated corporate world the one we see in films, filled with golf games and cocktail parties, where men can share cigars and whiskey while making sexist jokes? Certainly this type of male camaraderie exists within certain fields. I know from my own personal experience, the financial world is completely unequal with regards to gender. My own brother, a former college lacrosse player, first learned of his current job from a teammate; this is not uncommon for his athletic peers. At his country club, where he talks finance with co-workers and clients, there is an entirely separate section of the dining room, the 'men's club,' restricted to female members. We discuss this establishment, and though he acknowledges their customs as unequal, he still partakes in such traditions. I wonder how the few women in his office feel, for how can they compete if they're not even allowed to have a drink with their co-workers in this room? It is this type of by-product of the corporate culture in which we live that restrains women from achieving all that they are entitled to. Americans like to think that we can have it all, that women can and do achieve just as much as men, on the same scale- but this equal success is not yet a reality. Lack of change in the patriarchal system hurts not only women, as the authors point out, but also the success of companies, and our nation's economy as a whole.
I find it amazing that the male name of the company made such a difference in success; this reminds me of when women authors (George Elliot) routinely took male names in the days when it was not thought proper for a woman to even be an author. We are still hiding, yet this time, for economic gain. When will this end? Perhaps as more women enter and rise within the corporate world, they will help change the culture and the norms that presently exist.
Surely it is discouraging to read how women still dominate the entry level jobs and are paid less. As I approach the job market myself this year, I cannot believe that "young women, a year out of college, bring home just 80% what their male colleagues do, regardless of profession." Still, I am hopeful that changes in culture are possible. The authors cite research from the London Business School that points to the added value to companies when men and women in leadership positions work together, reinforcing the idea that gender difference makes a positive difference in the workplace. I am optimistic that the increase in using teams in learning in elementary, middle and high school, and in college as well, will eventually make its mark on the workplace culture that values the interaction of males and females.
Lastly, I sadly reflect that we cannot always legislate what is widely known as 'the right thing to do.' Our society needs to recognize such as the right thing to do in order for it to become a reality. Simply having the laws on the books does not fill the gender gap. I know that I will have to work to change the status quo in order to see real results; hopefully, the women of my generation will unite to demand gender equity in the workplace.