We Are Worth It: Women Must Value Themselves
Last week I tweeted out an article called the “Student Loan Debt Crisis Is a Women’s Issue: Here’s Why”. It was an interesting look at how the gender pay gap has implications well beyond salary. You and I both know that it’s totally “bootleg” that a recent female college graduate is paid 7 cents less per dollar than her male counterpart makes for the same job. The article points out that women have the same if not more debt when leaving college so that 7 cents is compounded when you consider the debt burden that she will have to pay.
Aside: I have to get on my soapbox for a second. I was riding with the author until she says “with a generation of women graduating college and entering the workforce on the path towards poverty”. Poverty, really? For a single person, the poverty level is just over $11,000 a year. If we want to have a mature discussion about poverty, I’m all for it, but I’m fairly certain that poverty is not the path for most college-educated women, particularly those that were not previously in poverty. Poverty is real!
Back on topic…
The pay gap is not about women choosing babies over briefcases. The pay disparity cannot be explained away by the choices that women make so institutions have to do a better job, whether that means legislating fairness or companies training their employees to better recognize their gender biases. The pay gap is a not figment of my lady imagination!
Institutions have to do their part, but ladies, we can’t leave this up to “big brother” to fix – that’s how we got into this situation. Here are a few thoughts:
- Women have to invest in themselves. That includes education and earning degrees. But women need to focus more on developing transferable professional skills, from negotiation (so we can comfortably ask for what we want) to analytical and quantitative skills. To college women: study whatever you want – if underwater basket-weaving interests you, then go for it. But can you please take a statistics course too?
- “God will make a way” is not a sound financial strategy. Women are more likely to choose liberal arts or social science degrees and professions over the more vocational/ technical degrees like business and engineering. Women are choosing fields that tend to be less lucrative on average so we need better financial planning. We live longer than men. We often end up caring for our parents and children more than men. So we need money. We need to shift from being consumers (you don’t need another pair of shoes) to being producers (as entrepreneurs, but also as savers and investors). If you have a mountain of student debt, then come up with a plan to get it down to a more reasonable level. We have to take ownership of our financial decisions. (And I’ll add taking out large student loans for college is one of many financial decisions that women and men need to reconsider).
For my Pre-MBA women (and men for that matter):
- Get your financial house in order now (before you head to business school) – eliminate your consumer debt, rein in your spending, and start saving (even if it’s $50 more a month)
- Embrace negotiation. Negotiation is a skill that can be learned and mastered. And it’s something that you already do daily. Practice negotiating more deliberately. Check out an article that I wrote on how to get comfortable with negotiating.
- Know your value. Women should be encouraged in all fields, not just those with the biggest salaries. It’s important that we know (really believe) that we can be rich investment bankers if we so choose. But that doesn’t mean we have to choose that path. I worked in banking, but most of my career has been spent in non-profit. Helping others is my calling and no discussion of the pay gap or career choices of women can change. But! Yes, there is a “but”. But women, including me, need to demand that we do well (financially and emotionally) when doing good. We must more accurately value ourselves and our work. This is not all about your salary and benefits. In non-profits, in social enterprises, in education, in healthcare, you are almost certainly going to be paid less than what you are worth. This is beyond compensation. I’m talking about knowing your inherent value so you can have the impact on the world that you were meant to have. I leave you with a quote:
“You can be the most beautiful person in the world and everybody sees light and rainbows when they look at you, but if you yourself don’t know it, all of that doesn’t even matter. Every second that you spend on doubting your worth, every moment that you use to criticize yourself; is a second of your life wasted, is a moment of your life thrown away. It’s not like you have forever, so don’t waste any of your seconds, don’t throw even one of your moments away”. C. JoyBell C.
