THIS YEAR, ON International Women’s Day we are being encouraged to #embraceequity and to take action to achieve gender parity.
Gender pay gaps recently reported by Irish employers highlight that if we want to achieve pay parity, we still have some way to go.
Gender pay gap reporting only became mandatory in Ireland last year, and most organisations published their reports in December, so a complete picture of the gender pay gap in Ireland is just beginning to emerge.
The gender pay gap measures the difference on average between the hourly wage rates of men and women within an organisation, and can therefore mask many differential effects within and across organisations. Aedín Doris explains fully in her article on The Journal exactly how the gap is calculated.
She argues that rather than telling us much about wages, what the measure really provides is an insight into the power structures within organisations.
Although the complete reported dataset has yet to be analysed, a PWC report using a sample of 500 companies gives us an indication of what to expect from a full analysis.
In 87% of companies, on average, men are paid more than women. Additionally, 75% of companies have a higher relative proportion of males in their top 25% of earners. The report notes that although there is variation across sectors and companies, a key factor behind the wage gap appears to be the relatively high number of males in more senior highly paid roles.
One possible explanation for the lower proportion of women in senior roles is that women are held to higher standards than men. In subjective evaluations such as promotion applications, they are therefore less likely to be successful.
There is strong evidence of this gender bias in academia for example, where women receive less credit than men for group work such as co-authored publications, and receive systematically lower teaching evaluations than men.
In the finance industry the evidence suggests that while men are likely to be offered a promotion, women more often have to request one in order to be promoted.
Another explanation for the lower number of women in more senior roles is that fertility decisions have a bigger impact on women’s careers than men’s. Recent research focusing on Irish graduates found that although there is pay parity at the beginning of their careers, a gender gap emerges after women have their first child.
Their income drops 27% on average, and a pay gap persists even eight years later.
The fall in income is only partly explained by women reducing their working hours after having children.
In Ireland, difficulties finding available or affordable childcare is a common problem. Additionally, many providers only care for children who are over one year old. Consequently, women may need to take a full year out of their career for each child they have.
Returning to work after a lengthy absence is difficult, and it can take time to return to full productivity, further compounding the impact that the absence has on promotion prospects.
While there is increasing recognition of a motherhood penalty on women, the impact of pregnancy loss on career progression is less commonly acknowledged or researched.
Pregnancy loss is estimated to occur in approximately one in four pregnancies. About 20% of women who experience a miscarriage suffer from depression and/or anxiety afterwards, lasting for one to three years after the loss.
Although miscarriages are common, a cultural taboo persists.
Many women experience feelings of guilt and inadequacy, and consequently may not want to tell people about their loss, including their employer or manager.
My first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage at 8.5 weeks gestation. My third was an ovarian ectopic pregnancy that caused me to collapse and require emergency surgery. I did not tell anyone at work about either, but they adversely impacted my mental and physical health, and my productivity for a significant amount of time.
The practice of including maternity leave on CVs is becoming increasingly common, although it is still unclear whether it considered as a moderating factor in promotion or hiring decisions.
Raina Brands, a Professor in University College London, has a pinned tweet on her Twitter feed outlining her decision to add both the birth of her son, and her miscarriages to her CV.
She argues that given the physical and emotional trauma of such events, they should be included to provide a full picture of a woman’s career.
In addition to being paid less than men, women are underrepresented at higher levels in many organisations and sectors, in public debate and the media, in government, and other policy making roles. To address these issues and close the gap we need to acknowledge that women face all the same challenges as men in our careers, but we face additional challenges that men do not experience.
When we are evaluated without any consideration of these challenges, the outcome is negatively biased.
Maybe to break the bias and embrace equity, we can force an acknowledgement of these challenges by adding both births and losses to our CVs.
Dr Emma Howard is an Economist and Lecturer at Technological University Dublin.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say