October 27, 2016
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Looking to Thrive!
Last Tuesday I attended a lecture at work. It was on awareness of the factors that create gender-related advantages and disadvantages in negotiations. If you are able to understand and more importantly recognize that there are gender biases then you can help promote a more egalitarian workplace. The title of the talk was "Gender and Negotiation in the Workplace" presented by Dr. Susan G. Williams, Professor Emerita of Management at Belmont University. The sponsoring group was a new one called Thrive Professional Development Committee. There has been a big push on campus for diversity education and gender equality this last year. Currently there is a mandatory diversity training workshop that every single staff member must attend. It was a 4 hour session. I enjoyed it but then again I'm not faculty or one of the powerful people who were required to do an eight hour workshop. But back to the lecture on Tuesday. Professor Williams had a charming southern accent that didn't diminish her message that there were and are gender differences that can become barriers to advancement for women. She spoke on the history of women in the workplace. This included some rather startling statistics on the earning power of women in the 1960s verses today. I would have thought that we had come further than we have. She then got to the meat of the matter and gave examples of how gender differences can affect the outcome of negotiations for everything from pay increases and promotions to sales pitches and business proposals. Although she gave some general strategies for sidestepping some gender pitfalls, a more comprehensive discussion was warranted. After the meeting a second opportunity was announced - to have one on one sessions and small group support meetings. Still it didn't address my big issue of women putting on their "man pants" and trying to out man the men....
Comments (4)
This is a topic that I've followed for quite some time. It's stretch into society it both long and deep, from workplace to volunteer organizations to home and more.
The gender bias is very, very real. While certainly improving and certainly better than many countries (though not all), it's still a big deal.
Unlike the highly-cited "locker room talk" that's being bandied about in the election, the more true "locker room talk" I've heard DOES include dismissing the pay disparity with comments like: "Women would rather work part-time," "Women don't work as hard (or are as committed to working) as men," "Women prefer secretarial type jobs where they don't get their hands dirty," and on and on. If challenged on their sexist paradigm about notable exceptions - "They're ugly," "they're dykes," and the like.
I recall the Family Leave Act being met with much scorn because of similar perspectives.
Just imagine what a presidential (or other) campaign might be like if actual issues were discussed. Hmmm....
The talk was well attended but the audience was almost all female (with maybe 2 men present). It seems that until both men and women are aware and are willing to confront the issue not much will change. In a related bit of news the science and math scores for girls has drawn level with boys in 4 - 8th grades... it drops after that but given a few more years it might just reach parity. STEM seems to be working - at least for the girls. Once those girls become women working (and there are more women in male dominated fields) it will be interesting to see if the pay difference fades. As a vet tech, I remember when we were all women. Pay was miserable. Once men started becoming vet techs base pay started creeping higher.... now Vet Techs can actually make a living in the field where when I was first starting our pay was considered adequate "supplemental income" for a married woman. We were supposed to be married and not have to support ourselves!! Which was of course so very far from the reality of life.
It's disheartening to me to see young women behaving in ways that substantiate stereotypes. They have no understanding of how hard generations of women before them worked to establish credibility for them. They take for granted their place in society which is tenuous at best when you hear the tolerance for blatant sexism. Educated, intelligent men, and more incredibly, women, allow excuses for deplorable behavior. I'm surprised this blog didn't arouse more chatter. Have you read Jon Krakauer's Missoula?
I have heard of Missoula - there was a book club discussion but I hadn't read it but I did sit in on the discussion. Disturbing on many levels. The idea that women have "arrived" at a place of equality is a misconception that is becoming more prevalent. I still remember the Vet School application that insisted that to become a veterinarian I needed to be able to bench press my body weight and dead lift 75 lbs... needless to say there were very few women that could pass the physical requirements. When I asked why these criteria had to be met I was told that that kind of physical strength was required "in case you had to stop a runaway horse or a charging bull". As I now know - no one can stop either of them by standing their ground and using brute force!
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