cause, it’s a social issue with the potential
to our children’s children. According to
IWPR, if the pace of change in pay parity
continues at its current rate it will take
41 years—or until 2059—for women to
see equal pay. The predictions for women
of color are more severe, with Hispanic
women not realizing equal pay until 2233
and black women in 2124.
It is no secret that minorities
disproportionately face poverty. Recent
figures from Pew Research Center
show that black people are more than
twice as likely as white people to live in
poverty. The money that black women
bring home matters on a different level;
a level that could fundamentally change
the economy.
“A whopping 80 percent of black
mothers are the primary breadwinners
for their households, and the wage gap
impacts them keenly—especially in
the messy middle years when they’re
raising families and trying to rise up in
their careers. Closing the wage gap for
black women would offer them enough
money for two-and-a-half years of child
care, three years’ worth of groceries
and roughly 22 more months of rent,”
according research reported by Leaders
Up this year.
And, it’s not just the gap in wages that’s
concerning. The equity gap for women
has surfaced as an issue as well. In
September, Carta, a startup that manages
and transfers securities for companies,
released what it called the first public
study of cap table data. It defined
cap table data as the list of owners or
shareholders in a company. The study
revealed that women hold 9 percent and
men hold 91 percent of startup equity.
A Fortune article that assessed the
findings of the study said, “Part of the
problem is that early employees receive
larger equity packages—and early-
stage startups typically don’t pay much
attention to diversity while hiring. It’s
only when companies reach the growth
stage of around 400 employees—and
equity packages have dwindled—that
women come close to the 40 percent
mark of a company’s makeup.”
What’s more staggering is that those
early employees, who are rarely
women, also rarely move up the ranks
as the company grows. The Fortune
article pointed out, “in later stages,
women are underrepresented in the
highly compensated C-suite.”
WAVE ‘HELLO’ TO THE TOP
When Ri Ri sang those words, she
did so from her position of power. A
position many of her sisters are not in.
The Russell 3000 index tracks
the performance of the 3,000
largest U.S.-traded stocks.
According to a recent article in
the Harvard Law School Forum
on Corporate Governance and
Financial Regulation, “Since
2012, the Russell 3000 has seen
a 70-percent increase in the
number of female CEOs. Despite
the relative increase, the number
of top female executives remains
disappointingly low, with only 5
percent of Russell 3000 companies
having a female CEO in 2018.”
The article goes on to explain that
the scarcity of women CEOs should
be expected due to the lack of
women representation in other roles
in the C-suite, and the reality that
the next CEO is often selected from
within the C-suite.
“These roles include the Chief
Operating Officer, the Chief Financial
Officer, and the Head of Sales, among
others,” the articles noted. “Only 9
percent of top executive positions in
the Russell 3000 are filled by women,
which means that companies have
a long way to go towards building
gender equity within the top ranks
where the next generation of CEOs
are cultivated.”
#mademaven
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