Gender equality is no longer a ‘wish’ for employees—it’s an expectation. But the reality is that over the past 20 years, the gender pay gap in the US has closed by just 2%.
According to the Pew Research Center, in 2002 women earned on average 80% of what men brought home. That figure rises to 82% in 2022.
In other words, the latest data shows that across the working age range, for every dollar men earn, women earn 18 cents less.
The truth about the arrival of women’s wages in the workplace (or not yet) is further undermined by the fact that many people do not believe that it exists.
In 2019, Survey Monkey asked 8,566 Americans if they thought the pay gap was real: 46% of men and 30% of women thought it was “created for political purposes” and not a “legitimate problem”.
A mixture of factors has led experts in gender equality to call for a little less carrot, a little more stick.
Talk to fortune during London’s MoneyLive Summit, Helene Panzarino, associate director at the London Institute of Banking and Finance’s Center for Digital Banking and Finance, said that gender equality has taken too long to achieve.
Panzarino said that “unless you have a stick” the journey to pay parity is moving very slowly.
“You can make laws, you can give quotas. I used to not know if we should have quotas and now I think: ‘I will have some,'” he said. “In my experience with banking and finance—like many industries—if you leave them to manage themselves, they won’t.”
Hybrid help
Businesses may have to accept that “the ship has sailed” when they return to work, Panzarino said.
“I think we are starting to lose some of the stigma about taking time off or having a flexible schedule. COVID, in that respect, has a silver lining. But businesses have to face the reality that now things will be different,” he said.
Lana Tahirly Abdullayev, founding director of Chez FinTech, points out that flexible working is not a new concept but one that supports female employees.
The mother of a 22-year-old daughter, she says that throughout her career, her employer has encouraged her to work flexibly because of her achievements.
The former director of Experian and Lloyds Banking told fortune: “All this flexibility allows me to continue to fulfill my role as a wife and mother and also succeed in my work. Everyone needs it, but sometimes women need more, there are no rules for everyone.
The pandemic, she added, did not affect the balance of time for women, but only proved to employers about remote work.
“Even during COVID, how many women have time off, or how many are taking care of children or elderly relatives? My friends, senior staff members, are still working and trying to arrange play dates for their children and send their husbands’ suits to the dry cleaners,” she said. Tahirly Abdullayev.
“As a wife and a mother, I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but being given flexibility in the workplace while continuing to work and give birth is very important.”
Removing the stigma around menopause is another important aspect of supporting women in the workplace that has been added, but which is often overlooked.
In a British government investigation last year of 2,161 women, 92% reported that menopause affected them at work, the main reasons being less ability to concentrate, increased stress levels and loss of confidence.
Tahirly Abdullayev has overseen a team of hundreds of people but says that in some organizations he can’t provide the support he wants because of company constraints.
“No one talks about menopause,” she said. “It’s a blind spot and it’s a very important subject to address.”
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