The Stigma of Gender Inequality: The Gender Pay Gap
- Marla Tumenjargal
- Sep 22, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 21, 2022
Introduction:
From politics to gender roles, to the workplace, diversity is necessary for creating technical foundations for gender equality. The media today is greatly emphasizing a rising issue towards women representation, and incorporates increased focus towards bridging the gender gap. Although many modern organizations proactively engage towards addressing the issue, the workplace lacks diversity necessary for creating technical foundations for gender equality.
Underrepresentation in Women in Technology:
The cliche image of the technology industry entailed hunch-backed, anti-social, shy, basement-dwelling white male nerds. While programming is a key subfield in the industry, the career requires communication, collaboration, and effective algorithmic thinking, a clear contrast of the stereotype. The traditional stereotype of a "tech-based" career has become a uncaptivating element of the "job." Not only does the stereotype create this affect, however; the once female-dominated career has become a "endless cycle" of training, certification, and side gigs for many women. According to Women in Technology Statistics, at the current pace of change, it will take 133 years and 160 days until the economic gender gap is closed." According to the Women's Workforce, women make up less than 40% of the total global workforce, with 34% of STEM graduates being women, and earning 19% less than their male counterparts."
Influential Figure: Emilie Choi
COO & President of Coinbase, Emilie Choi have all risen to the top of women representation. As the 8-year vice president of Linkedln she joined the Coinbase community in 2018 to promote the widely popular industry of cryptocurrency exchange start-up. Her passion for cryptocurrency and gender equality has secured her a fundamental role to the company. Her decorated tech-based personality has earned her prestige within the 15% of women in CEO positions.
How we've begun to break the bias
With all that in mind, data scientists from the Deloitte Global estimate, "the workforce for women has increased by 6.9% from 2019 to 2022, while their share in technical roles has grown by 11.7%. Notably, the fastest growth--an estimated gain of nearly 20%--has occurred in the proportion of women in leadership," the firm said. A variety of large, dominating tech giants have made public commitments to improving the diversity of their gender roles through leadership and technical roles. Surpassing representation of racial and ethnic minorities is becoming another priority for the companies, and they aim to double the number of women in tech by 2030. Not to mention, diversified workforces have committed to holistic, inclusion strategies, embraced transparency, and have designed all-inclusive programs to promote and hire.
Introduction
In 2021, women represent less than 27% of technologists, and that number is declining 2% every year. In recent years, many companies are incorporating diversity in their workforce, due to a multitude of national conversations about the gender gap in tech. On average, the gender pay gap stands at 9% and only seven women are running the top 100 companies.
The Current Pay Gap
According to a US Census, "Although the gender pay gap has narrowed since the signing of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, women earned 82 cents for every dollar a man earns according to 2020 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The gender gap has narrowed for younger women as they increase their education level and break into occupations traditionally dominated by men."
AJ Vandermeyden's story
Living in Palo Alto, California, thirty-year old AJ Vandermeyden was called in for a brief interview at Tesla's corporate headquarter. There she was, sitting in the waiting office in Silicon Valley, the center of the technology world. She hoped to take on Elon Musk's ambitious yet eccentric mission, creating technology devoted to solar energy and producing electric cars. Soon after her interview, she was hired as a product specialist in April of 2013, and after a year she was promoted to an engineering project coordinator. Day to day, working alongside her group of employees, the once futuristic-like workplace she once loved had become oddly eerie, almost as if something was deeply wrong. Having worked at the company for four years and being promoted four time to a manufacturing engineer, her salary was significantly lower than that of all of her employees. Her performance evaluations were almost perfect, yet she was never payed overtime, given rest breaks, or meal periods. In addition to working in a male-dominated field, she reported daily mistreatment from her employees and sales managers. Soon after, she raised lawsuit allegations in the fall of 2015, suing Elon for mistreatment, harassment, and a alarmingly low salary. She was later fired and her story became viral.
Sources:
https://www.advantisglobal.com/blog/lack-of-women-in-tech-industry
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