At Pixeron, we believe that women need support to reach their full potential as professionals and otherwise. Women centric is one of our main pillars and one we stand by with practices such as our partnership with Laboratoria and our overall business focus.
This is why this month our challenge is focused towards eliminating the gender gap and encouraging people to do one thing: notice the glass ceiling.
What is the glass ceiling? Coined by Marilyn Loden almost 40 years ago, the term “glass ceiling” refers to the sometimes-invisible barrier to success that many women come up against in their careers.
This barrier is oftentimes hard to see, but it manifests itself in ways such as:
- Women with college degrees often choose to work in fields that offer lower incomes. Although women have surpassed men in educational environments, they are way underrepresented in top-paying jobs. For example, about 40 percent of women born in America in 1985 hold college degrees, compared to just under 30 percent of men — yet women’s educational advantage hasn’t led to higher pay.
- An ever existing pay gap: college-educated women, more often than men, avoid majors that lead to higher-earning occupations. This pay gap also manifests itself when competing for higher paying jobs and negotiating higher salaries. Men are oftentimes favored to get promotions and better salaries since they are considered “the breadwinner of the family”.
- The demands for child care, housework and other life chores outside of work fall more heavily on women than on men. Higher paying occupations are more inflexible and require more time commitment. Women have a harder time with this inflexibility because they remain responsible for taking care of the home, including raising children.
As you can see, these practices that lead to inequality come from societal biases and preconceptions that date way back. And this is exactly why we need to be made aware of them.
The challenge is the following: ask yourself these questions in any work or professional environment you might encounter (not only yours).
- Are there any female leaders in the organization? Who is calling the shots?
- Do you see a gender bias when people consider new or higher paying positions?
- Do you hear expressions like “She will get pregnant and leave” or “The man has to provide for his family”?
- Do you see women multitasking more than men? (eg. taking care of children while working and cooking at the same time)
- Do you see women doing more work at certain projects and getting less credit for them?
- Who do people look to for answers? A male manager or a female manager?
- How often do women receive raises compared to men?
While this list isn’t necessarily comprehensive, these questions will help you get some insight about the way gender creates a bias in your environment. While realizing the glass ceiling exists isn’t going to solve it, and we need policies and a societal shift, it is definitely the first step to take action and start breaking it all together.
