Is The Gender Pay Gap Real?

Are women really getting paid less than men for doing comparable work, or are we all being blinded by statistics, which as Aaron Lowenstein said are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive but what they conceal is vital.

For example, according to the National Statistics website“The gender pay gap (as measured by the median hourly pay excluding overtime of full-time employees) widened between 2007 and 2008.

However, in a recent paper for the Institute of Economic Affairs, Professor John Shackleton, of the University of East London, pointed out that single, widowed or divorced women earn more than their male counterparts, but the pay gap between men and women in families with three children was 19 per cent.

He also states that men earn more money than women because they work longer hours, put in the overtime, go out of their way to seek high pay and promotion and don’t stop working to have families.

Hmmm. So which report (both, I have no doubt based on statistics) is right? An impossible question to answer without ‘stripping off the bikini’ i.e. without looking at the information that was collected, how it was collected, how it was analysed, and what the analysts’ theories were when they began their research.

A huge amount of legistlation dealing with women in the workplace has been passed based on the kind of statistics that say women get paid less than men. And I am sure a lot of the statistical information is correct; and a lot of the legistlation is required.

But having spent 10 years working as a management adviser to hundreds of small, medium and large organisations, I know for a fact that a lot of the legistlation is, as Professor Shackleton states, counterproductive.

I hate to think of the number of employers, male and female, who have looked me in the eye and stated that they will not hire women of a certain age and stage in life, because they are likely to want to have families; thereby costing the company more than other employees.

Female Negotiation Fears

Are women afraid of negotiating? Do they see it as an unfeminine activity? Do they see it as something they cannot be bothered to do, or are they just not very good at it.

Whatever the reason, it seems women do not use negotiation as often or as well as men and as a result they lose out.

For example, it is generally agreed that many women are paid less than men doing comparable work.

The credit crunch is seeing far more full time women than men being made redundant.

Women end up taking the majority of the responsibility for the home and family while still working.

All of these areas could be dramatically improved if women learned to negotiate really well, But 81 years after women got the vote in UK, the communicating sex still does not negotiate to our advantage.

Stealing our Children's Birthright

Negotiation is a core part of the way everyone, of whatever age, operates. From our first breath to our last the success of our relationships depends on our ability to negotiate well.

So why are we not taught how to negotiate right from the start? Why are we not drilled with the skills at home, at nursery, primary & secondary school, college and university so that they become as natural as breathing from a very early age?

Wherever children do learn the basics of negotiation, it is as a result of watching others. Adults teach by example, without even realising they are doing so, and many of the lessons passed on this way are truly dreadful.

We work hard at teaching a child to talk. We then send it to school for years so that it can learn to read and write. But where, and in what cultures do we teach a child to listen?

How many children, young people, or even adults do you know who have been taught Spanish, Japanese, French or whatever for years at school, but have never been taught how to translate body language when they need to?

How many of your acquaintances are capable of thinking themselves into another’s shoes and working out what that other person needs from their interaction?

And how many people do you know who regularly work out life plans and goals, and use goal setting to increase their chances of success?

None of these things are inbuilt instincts, traits or talents. They are all skills, they need to be taught and they can all be improved with time and practice.

But evidently we don’t think it is worth while to teach our children these skills which could make such a difference to their lives.