In honor of International Women's Day (Mar. 8), I am posting this:
May 23, 2017 "There is no better time to be a woman": Today I found this article in the Globe and Mail. This is a positive article:
Chitra Anand is a doctoral researcher and professor at Forbes School of Business, and an Innovation and Culture Change speaker.
Follow her on Twitter @chitra_anand.
Follow her on Twitter @chitra_anand.
I was brought up in a traditional Indian home by two immigrant parents who came to Canada from India in the sixties.
My upbringing took the shape of a traditional household with traditional roles. My father went to work to provide for the family; my mother stayed home, took care of the kids and the household.
It was a conservative and strict upbringing. I was not allowed to wear dresses above my knee, show my bare arms, have sleepovers or date boys.
It was a conservative and strict upbringing. I was not allowed to wear dresses above my knee, show my bare arms, have sleepovers or date boys.
These were all cultural limitations, but even with them, I was encouraged to do well in school, pursue my passions, have a career, be great and chase my dreams.
I was told that I can do anything that I set my mind to.
I was never told that, by being female, I was at a disadvantage. Thus, it never crossed my mind, and I never felt disadvantaged.
The first time that I heard about gender inequality was when I was 28. It was at my second job when I started to see things, hear about the problem, and start to experience it.
It’s amazing actually – I went through high school, university and two jobs without feeling like being female had its challenges.
It’s amazing actually – I went through high school, university and two jobs without feeling like being female had its challenges.
I believe this was because of what I was raised to believe and the lens through which I viewed the world. It was the narrative that I created in my mind because of the environment in which I was surrounded.
We are in an interesting time now. There is a lot of focus on women in the workplace. The diversity agenda is under fire and women are at the core of it; equal pay, equal opportunity, women on boards.
Many would say that it is a difficult time for women. I would argue that there is no better time to be a woman.
Yes, it is challenging; yes, it is hard; yes, there are stats to prove all of this – but there is also opportunity, an opportunity to lead as women in business.
I am a communications executive, and our industry is responsible for creating external narratives for companies, for brands, for people. What I advocate and believe in is that women need to create and focus on internal narratives.
What is the message that we are sending ourselves, but moreover, what is the story that we are creating for ourselves as women?
What is the message that we are sending ourselves, but moreover, what is the story that we are creating for ourselves as women?
If you were to survey senior employees about the hours they work, it would likely be more than 10-to-12 hours a day, plus weekends. Most of the women that I know don’t want to work those kind of hours. Why? Because we are multidimensional.
What do I mean by this? There are several things in life that define us; we are not defined by just our jobs. Personally, I have many passions: travel, sports and fitness, writing, spending time with friends and family, reading, learning – and I have two kids and a husband. I need these things to make me whole. I am not one-dimensional.
If I chose to be a chief executive, I would go in eyes wide open, knowing that my time would not be my own. My husband and I have talked about this. I believe women have, to some extent, chosen not to take on these roles because of the massive time commitment involved.
If you want to be a CEO, you can be, just know what you are signing up for. Think about this objectively, with an open mindset.
If you want to be a CEO, you can be, just know what you are signing up for. Think about this objectively, with an open mindset.
I am a female visible minority in tech; if I had allowed statistics, injustices and bad behaviour to influence me negatively, I would have been defeated.
I have used it as intelligence – ammunition to propel myself forward – and it has not been easy, but I would not have it any other way. It is the lessons along the way that have defined me, taught me, and that have awakened me.
I have used it as intelligence – ammunition to propel myself forward – and it has not been easy, but I would not have it any other way. It is the lessons along the way that have defined me, taught me, and that have awakened me.
So regarding the adversity women face in the workplace, I would say three things:
Be the narrative that you want to be. Who are you, what is your story, what is your unique value, your personal power? Define it, create it, live it, own it.
Don’t give up your personal power in times of adversity. Bad things are going to happen; good things are going to happen; people behave inappropriately; they will steal your ideas; they will be sexist; they will be prejudiced; they will say inappropriate things – but that is just life. It is not a male problem; it is not a female problem; it is a human problem.
Know what your value is, do not give up your personal power in times of adversity. Remain focused and clear-headed.
Know what your value is, do not give up your personal power in times of adversity. Remain focused and clear-headed.
Lead your business using a problem-solving mindset. Business people, at their core, are problem-solvers.
We just use different crafts, disciplines, and levers. Use this mindset when tackling challenges. When problem-solving, you are taking a pro-active approach to shaping your environment. You look at the possibilities, and this ultimately leads to creativity.
We just use different crafts, disciplines, and levers. Use this mindset when tackling challenges. When problem-solving, you are taking a pro-active approach to shaping your environment. You look at the possibilities, and this ultimately leads to creativity.
Executives and human-resources experts share their views in the ongoing Leadership Lab series. Find more stories here.
Comments:
Great article. It is an exciting time to be a women in the workplace. We all need to carve out a life designed to make us happy. Block out the voices of the detractors. Follow your instincts and your dreams.
Life's Great
1 day ago
Well said!
On-Line Reader
2 days ago
Interesting column.
I read a column in the last year written by the prominent U.S. statistician Nate Silver (who got the 2012 Presidential Election entirely correct, and missed--like everyone else--the 2016 election). He did a study on wages and found the one group over the last number of years that has had strong wage growth are those that work long hours.
I had a few jobs like that and in some cases I found myself on a project that simply demanded those hours. In other cases, the company routinely expected those hours week-in, week-out.
So does everyone want to work 50-60 hrs a week? Well no. Some of us want to have a life outside of work. The places that wanted an extra day or so of work every week, I left.
Sorry. Didn't want to do that, folks.
And yes, btw, there are some 'males' who work these hours because, even today, there is an unconscious bias in society that still looks to the 'male' to ultimately provide for his family, come Hell or high water.
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"How motherhood widens the gender pay gap": Today I found this article by Claire Cain Miller in the Globe and Mail. This is a negative article:
When men and women finish school and start working, they’re paid pretty much equally. But a gender pay gap soon appears and it grows significantly over the next two decades.
So what changes? The answer can be found by looking at when the pay gap widens most sharply. It’s the late 20s to mid-30s, according to two new studies – in other words, when many women have children. Unmarried women without children continue to earn closer to what men do.
The big reason that having children, and even marrying in the first place, hurts women’s pay relative to men’s is that the division of labour at home is still unequal, even when both spouses work full time. That’s especially true for college-educated women in high-earning occupations: Children are particularly damaging to their careers.
But even married women without children earn less, research shows, because women are more likely to give up job opportunities to either move or stay put for their husband’s job.
Married women might also take less intensive jobs in preparation for children or employers might not give them more responsibility because they assume they’ll have babies and take time off.
Married women might also take less intensive jobs in preparation for children or employers might not give them more responsibility because they assume they’ll have babies and take time off.
“One person focuses on career and the other one does the lion’s share of the work at home,” said Sari Kerr, an economist at Wellesley College and an author of both papers. One will be published in the American Economic Review this month. The other was published this month as a working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The other researchers were Claudia Goldin of Harvard, Claudia Olivetti of Boston College and Erling Barth of the Institute for Social Research in Oslo.
The other researchers were Claudia Goldin of Harvard, Claudia Olivetti of Boston College and Erling Barth of the Institute for Social Research in Oslo.
It is logical for couples to decide that the person who earns less, usually a woman, does more of the household chores and child care, Ms. Kerr said. But it’s also a reason women earn less in the first place. “That reinforces the pay gap in the labour market and we’re trapped in this self-reinforcing cycle,” she said.
Some women work less once they have children, but many don’t, and employers pay them less, too, seemingly because they assume they will be less committed, research shows.
Even when mothers cut back at work, they are not paid proportionately less. When their pay is calculated on an hourly basis, they are still paid less than men for the hours they work, Ms. Goldin has shown in previous work. Employers, especially for jobs that require a college degree, pay people disproportionately more for working long hours and disproportionately less for working flexibly.
To achieve greater pay equality, social scientists say – other than women avoiding marriage and children – changes would have to take place in workplaces and public policy that applied to both men and women.
Examples could be companies putting less priority on long hours and face time and the government providing subsidized child care and moderate-length parental leave.
Examples could be companies putting less priority on long hours and face time and the government providing subsidized child care and moderate-length parental leave.
According to the data, Ms. Kerr said, college-educated women make about 90 per cent as much as men at the age of 25 and about 55 per cent as much at the age of 45.
The new working paper, which covered the broadest group of people over time, found that between the ages of 25 and 45, the gender pay gap for college graduates, which starts close to zero, widens by 55 percentage points. For those without college degrees, it widens by 28 percentage points.
Much of that happens early in people’s careers, during women’s childbearing years. The American Economic Review paper, which examined people born around 1970, found that almost all of the pay gap for college graduates came from the ages of 26 to 33.
The researchers used demographic data from the 2000 census and work history from 1995 to 2008 from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Longitudinal EmployerHousehold Dynamics program, which covers private-sector companies. These two data sets have rarely been combined, which allowed the researchers to connect people’s work histories with demographic data such as age, education, marriage and childbirth.
The pay gap is larger for college graduates because their earnings are higher and men dominate the highest-paying jobs. These jobs also place more value on long, inflexible hours.
People without college degrees start out with a slightly larger pay gap, but it is smaller throughout their careers. Part of the reason is that less-educated men have fewer high-paying job options than they used to. “The pay gap is not because non-college-educated women do so well, but because non-college-educated men are not doing well,” Ms. Kerr said.
Twenty-seven per cent of the overall pay gap is from men being more likely to jump to higher-paying firms, the economists found. When married women leave jobs, they are less likely to get a big pay bump as a result. Previous research has found they are more likely to leave without another job lined up; they may move for their husband’s job or take time off with children.
But the bulk of the pay gap – 73 per cent, they found – is from women not getting raises and promotions at the rate of men within companies. Seniority and experience seem to pay off much more for men than for women.
“On every possible front, women are getting the short end of the stick,” Ms. Kerr said. “Whether they’re changing jobs or trying to stick with the current employer, the returns are always smaller.”
The average college-educated man, for instance, improves his earnings by 77 per cent from the age of 25 to 45, while similar women improve their earnings by only 31 per cent. Men without college degrees increase their earnings much faster than similar women in the first decade of their careers, but by 45, women catch up.
Even women who catch up, however, pay a long-term price. They’ve lost a significant amount of pay – in wages, raises and retirement savings – along the way.
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