Silicon Valley could lead a very important gender-equality charge

By THOMAS HARTWELL

Microsoft and Facebook, among other large tech companies, are leading the charge on closing the gender pay gap (article here). "Hired, an online jobs marketplace" conducted a study of more than 100,000 jobs, 15,000 candidates and 3,000 companies, revealing that the pay gap in Silicon Valley, on average, is about a 3 percent difference in salary to the advantage of males (in some extreme cases, the wage gap could be up to 30 percent). Part of the contribution to this gap in pay is what is referred to as the "expectation gap." This is the idea that women, in general, have come to expect to be paid less and, in turn, ask for less when applying for a job. There is a bright side though; Mashable also found that younger women entering the tech workforce are inclined to ask for more money upon entry.

Image from hired.com

Large companies like these leading this charge can be a big help with this workplace issue, but, in many cases, companies are tackling the issue of payment in the wrong ways. For example, Google, to address the concern of a pay gap internally, raised pay across the board. While a raise came to the women of the company, the pay gap remained, so the issue of men being paid more money for the same expectations remained.

The issue of a gender pay gap, just like many other things, begins at a young age with expectations. There must be organizations that empower women from a young age and develop training that prepares women to circumvent and fundamentally change the way they approach the tech field and the workplace as a whole -- and there are third parties which do just that. Global Fund for Women's Technology Initiative speaks directly to the issue of pay gaps. While Global Fund for Women deals with worldwide women's rights issues, they have developed an initiative for funding and providing access to training and educational opportunities in the STEM and IT fields.

Image from globalfundforwomen.org

While there should be celebration and optimism surrounding the recurring announcements of slashed pay gaps, that optimism should be cautious. There is still plenty of inequality and discrimination in this country's job market (often fear-based discrimination). Many, many more steps need to be taken in the right direction --  we haven't even begun to talk about the racial pay gap or the lack of gender neutral and transgender employment...