Women like Sheryl Sandberg, who have built a reputation by telling women to just “lean in” to get what we want at work has helped pave the way for gender equality. By now, many of us know that the gender pay gap is a real and ongoing issue. Women are said to be paid between 10-20% less than their male counterpart and the gap is greater with women of minority.
Research conducted by Harvard Business review showed that women in fact do ask for pay raises as much as men but do not get them with the same consistency. There was a study in Australia of 4,600 randomly selected employees across 800 workplaces which researched the culture of “asking” at work. They found that women asked for pay rises just as often as men, but while men were successful in obtaining the pay rise 20 percent of the time, women were only successful 15 percent of the time. 14 percent of men and 14 percent of women reported as not asking for a raise because of the concern of damaging their relationships at work. Interestingly, the most prominent aspect was age. Younger women appeared as statistically indistinguishable from younger men, even when it came to “getting” the raise.
This shows a slight change to come in the fight for gender equality. The research that is being conducted around the world not only shows the truth behind the gender pay gap but it also show that something is being done about it. Women are learning to negotiate better and stand up for their worth. Putting this issue at the forefront is crucial to society. Women must rise up the the challenge and demand equal pay in the workplace.