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What Should Women Know to Get Ahead?
Between the #MeToo movement and the Kavanaugh confirmation process, the national news has been focused on women a lot in the past year. It seems fitting, then, to consider employment from the perspective of women. It’s no secret that they have a tougher road to travel than men. Their disadvantages begin right out of the gate and have no end in sight. So, what should women know to get ahead in the employment market?
Understanding the barriers to achievement for working women and quantifying the obstacles are the first steps towards gender parity. It is hard to measure when and by how much sexism tips the balance against a woman in the workplace. Consider Serena Williams’ loss to Naomi Osaka at the U.S. Open in 2018. Was the umpire harder on Williams than he would have been on a male tennis player behaving in the same way? Many argue that he was and altered the outcome of a high-stakes match in the process. In a similar way, women face harsher judgement by employers and superiors in the workplace, resulting in fewer hires, promotions and pay raises than men — and sometimes more terminations. In the corporate world judgements usually aren’t on public display. But statistics tell the story.
What Do We Know?
Women earn more college degrees than men and have done so for decades, and they also represent 57% of the U.S. population…
