Search results for: “pay equity”

  • Gender wage gap

    Gender wage gap

    [fusion_builder_container admin_label=”” hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” video_preview_image=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” margin_top=”20″ margin_bottom=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” admin_toggled=”no” type=”legacy”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”3_4″ layout=”3_4″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” hover_type=”none” link=”” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” last=”false” border_sizes_top=”0″ border_sizes_bottom=”0″ border_sizes_left=”0″ border_sizes_right=”0″ first=”true” spacing_right=””][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=””]

    Although the gender wage gap has been documented for decades, and despite initiatives such as Ontario’s Pay Equity Act, the Human Rights Code and other policy initiatives aimed at addressing the issue, little progress has been made. While the gap has decreased since the 1980s, progress began to slow in the 2000s. According to a 2017 Labour Force Survey, women working full time in Canada still earn $0.87 for every dollar earned by men. What accounts for this persistent gap?

    Below, we’ve curated a primer of our best research and insights on this subject.

    [/fusion_text][fusion_accordion type=”toggles” boxed_mode=”yes” border_size=”2″ border_color=”#ffffff” background_color=”#ffffff” hover_color=”#ffffff” divider_line=”” title_font_size=”18″ icon_size=”” icon_color=”” icon_boxed_mode=”” icon_box_color=”#ff7300″ icon_alignment=”” toggle_hover_accent_color=”#00c2e2″ hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=””][fusion_toggle title=”What is it?” open=”no”]

    The gender wage gap is the difference between women and men’s pay. It can be measured in many different ways, but the most prominent are: by hourly earnings, weekly earnings, and annual income. Most people think the wage gap comes from women being paid unequally for the same work, but this only accounts for a small portion of the gap (~95 cents). The bigger source of the gap comes from “job segregation” where women end up working in lower paid job categories or industry sectors (this is the ~87 cents that most people talk about). For women of colour, that number decreases to 64 cents, and for transgender women it’s estimated to be even lower. Because more women than men work part-time, when comparing total annual wages, an even larger gender wage gap exists (~70 cents), primarily because women more often work part-time in order to accommodate care work responsibilities.

    [/fusion_toggle][fusion_toggle title=”Why does it matter?” open=”no”]

    The gender wage gap matters not only because it’s a stark example of the gender inequity that still persists globally (even in more egalitarian countries such as Denmark or Iceland) but also because it has a tangible impact on the economic outcomes of many women. Lower earning power means many women are at risk of falling into poverty, particularly if they have children, and are less able to save for retirement leaving them especially vulnerable as they grow older.

    [/fusion_toggle][fusion_toggle title=”What’s the debate?” open=”no”]

    We know that the gender wage gap is caused by a variety of factors: occupation (women tend to be employed in lower-wage occupations and lower-paid industries) and part-time vs. full-time work (more women than men work part-time). Many of these factors are driven by the “motherhood penalty,” where gendered expectations about care responsibilities push women into lower earning, more flexible roles (such as part-time work), keeping them from advancing to senior leadership. Direct gender (and racial) discrimination accounts for an estimated 10-15% of the gap.

    As a result, it is unclear how effective pay equity and pay transparency legislation will be in closing the gap. To learn more about this, click here.

    [/fusion_toggle][/fusion_accordion][fusion_button link=”” text_transform=”uppercase” title=”” target=”_self” link_attributes=”” alignment=”center” modal=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” color=”custom” button_gradient_top_color=”#00c2e2″ button_gradient_bottom_color=”#00c2e2″ button_gradient_top_color_hover=”#00c2e2″ button_gradient_bottom_color_hover=”#00c2e2″ accent_color=”” accent_hover_color=”” type=”” bevel_color=”” size=”” stretch=”default” icon=”” icon_position=”left” icon_divider=”no” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]Learn more[/fusion_button][fusion_section_separator divider_type=”triangle” divider_position=”left” divider_candy=”bottom” icon=”” icon_color=”” bordersize=”3″ bordercolor=”#00c2e2″ backgroundcolor=”#00c2e2″ hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” /][fusion_imageframe image_id=”5564|full” max_width=”” style_type=”none” blur=”” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”center” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” lightbox_image_id=”” alt=”The gender wage gap” link=”https://www.gendereconomy.org/the-gender-wage-gap/” linktarget=”_blank” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]https://www.gendereconomy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/GenderWageGap_Web.jpg[/fusion_imageframe][fusion_separator style_type=”none” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” sep_color=”” top_margin=”20″ bottom_margin=”20″ border_size=”” icon=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” width=”” alignment=”center” /][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=””]

    The gender wage gap

    The gender wage gap varies by race and ethnicity. According to The 2011 National Household Survey, when full-time median employment income is analyzed there is a ~92 cent wage gap between visible and non-visible minority women and a ~72 cent wage gap between visible minority men and women. Earnings disparities are evident among transgender individuals as well. The 2011 Trans PULSE survey finds that while 71% of trans people in Ontario surveyed have at least some college or university education, about half make $15,000 per year or less.

    One major cause of the wage gap is job segregation. A whole host of factors conspire to segregate women into occupational fields that pay less, such as childcare and retail. Within firms, this might mean that women end up in internal, back-office roles rather than external or revenue-producing roles. Women also confront a motherhood penalty. Mothers are perceived to be less competent, and the time they take off work to have children decelerates salary raises and promotions.

    People looking to get ahead in their jobs must often work long hours, but the gendered allocation of family responsibilities prevents women from being able to do this, especially since women are more likely to be single parents than men. As a result, jobs requiring employees to work long hours produce some of the largest wage gaps.

    [/fusion_text][fusion_button link=”https://www.gendereconomy.org/the-gender-wage-gap/” text_transform=”” title=”” target=”_blank” link_attributes=”” alignment=”” modal=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” color=”custom” button_gradient_top_color=”#62bd19″ button_gradient_bottom_color=”#62bd19″ button_gradient_top_color_hover=”#00c2e2″ button_gradient_bottom_color_hover=”#00c2e2″ accent_color=”” accent_hover_color=”” type=”” bevel_color=”” size=”” stretch=”default” icon=”” icon_position=”left” icon_divider=”no” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]Read the full research brief[/fusion_button][fusion_separator style_type=”none” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” sep_color=”” top_margin=”20″ bottom_margin=”20″ border_size=”” icon=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” width=”” alignment=”center” /][fusion_code]PGlmcmFtZSB0aXRsZT0iWW91VHViZSB2aWRlbyBwbGF5ZXIiIHNyYz0iaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vZW1iZWQvNFN0cUlZZmdxSkUiIHdpZHRoPSI2NDAiIGhlaWdodD0iMzYwIiBmcmFtZWJvcmRlcj0iMCIgYWxsb3dmdWxsc2NyZWVuPSJhbGxvd2Z1bGxzY3JlZW4iPjwvaWZyYW1lPg==[/fusion_code][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” content_alignment_medium=”” content_alignment_small=”” content_alignment=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” fusion_font_family_text_font=”” fusion_font_variant_text_font=”” font_size=”” line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” text_transform=”” text_color=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_color=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_delay=”0″ animation_offset=”” logics=””]

    Dionne Pohler on the gender wage gap and what we’re missing

    In this video, Assistant Professor and GATE Faculty Research Fellow, Dionne Pohler explains the origins of the gender wage gap, and why she thinks a basic income guarantee could be one solution, of many.[/fusion_text][fusion_separator style_type=”none” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” sep_color=”” top_margin=”20″ bottom_margin=”20″ border_size=”” icon=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” width=”” alignment=”center” /][fusion_button link=”” text_transform=”uppercase” title=”” target=”_self” link_attributes=”” alignment=”center” modal=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” color=”custom” button_gradient_top_color=”#00c2e2″ button_gradient_bottom_color=”#00c2e2″ button_gradient_top_color_hover=”#00c2e2″ button_gradient_bottom_color_hover=”#00c2e2″ accent_color=”” accent_hover_color=”” type=”” bevel_color=”” size=”” stretch=”default” icon=”” icon_position=”left” icon_divider=”no” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]Still interested?[/fusion_button][fusion_section_separator divider_type=”triangle” divider_position=”left” divider_candy=”bottom” icon=”” icon_color=”” bordersize=”3″ bordercolor=”#00c2e2″ backgroundcolor=”#00c2e2″ hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” /][fusion_separator style_type=”none” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” sep_color=”” top_margin=”20″ bottom_margin=”20″ border_size=”” icon=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” width=”” alignment=”center” /][fusion_separator style_type=”none” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” sep_color=”” top_margin=”5″ bottom_margin=”10″ border_size=”” icon=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” width=”” alignment=”center” /][fusion_builder_row_inner][fusion_builder_column_inner type=”1_2″ layout=”1_2″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” hover_type=”none” link=”” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” dimension_margin=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” last=”false” border_position=”all” border_sizes_top=”0″ border_sizes_bottom=”0″ border_sizes_left=”0″ border_sizes_right=”0″ first=”true” spacing_right=””][fusion_imageframe image_id=”4895|large” max_width=”” style_type=”none” blur=”” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”none” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” lightbox_image_id=”” alt=”Why do men make more money than women?” link=”https://www.macleans.ca/society/why-do-men-make-more-money-than-women/” linktarget=”_blank” 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    Sarah Kaplan speaks with Maclean’s magazine about the “choice” argument for the gender wage gap and the myth of meritocracy.

    [/fusion_content_box][/fusion_content_boxes][/fusion_builder_column_inner][/fusion_builder_row_inner][fusion_builder_row_inner][fusion_builder_column_inner type=”1_3″ layout=”1_3″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” hover_type=”none” link=”” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” dimension_margin=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” last=”false” border_position=”all” border_sizes_top=”0″ border_sizes_bottom=”0″ border_sizes_left=”0″ border_sizes_right=”0″ first=”true” spacing_right=””][fusion_imageframe image_id=”5787|medium” max_width=”” style_type=”none” blur=”” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”none” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” lightbox_image_id=”” alt=”” link=”https://www.gendereconomy.org/gender-pay-gap-at-the-top/” linktarget=”_blank” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]https://www.gendereconomy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/PayGapAtTheTop-300×169.jpg[/fusion_imageframe][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=””]

    Gender pay gap at the top

    [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column_inner][fusion_builder_column_inner type=”1_3″ layout=”1_3″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” hover_type=”none” link=”” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” dimension_margin=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” last=”false” border_position=”all” border_sizes_top=”0″ border_sizes_bottom=”0″ border_sizes_left=”0″ border_sizes_right=”0″ first=”false” spacing_right=””][fusion_imageframe image_id=”3564|large” max_width=”” style_type=”none” blur=”” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”none” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” lightbox_image_id=”” alt=”Gender variation in MBA career paths” link=”https://www.gendereconomy.org/examining-gender-variation-in-mba-career-paths/” linktarget=”_blank” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]https://www.gendereconomy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/jonathan-daniels-373306-unsplash-1024×576.jpg[/fusion_imageframe][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=””]

    Examining gender variations in MBA career paths

    [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column_inner][fusion_builder_column_inner type=”1_3″ layout=”1_3″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” hover_type=”none” link=”” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” dimension_margin=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” last=”true” border_position=”all” border_sizes_top=”0″ border_sizes_bottom=”0″ border_sizes_left=”0″ border_sizes_right=”0″ first=”false”][fusion_imageframe image_id=”5292|full” max_width=”” style_type=”none” blur=”” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”none” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” lightbox_image_id=”” alt=”Women on the gender pay gap” link=”https://www.gendereconomy.org/canadian-women-on-the-gender-pay-gap/” linktarget=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]https://www.gendereconomy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-05-at-3.17.13-PM.png[/fusion_imageframe][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=””]

    Canadian women on the gender pay gap, and how we can fix it

    [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column_inner][/fusion_builder_row_inner][fusion_separator style_type=”none” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” sep_color=”” top_margin=”5″ bottom_margin=”10″ border_size=”” icon=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” width=”” alignment=”center” /][fusion_button link=”https://www.gendereconomy.org/tag/gender-wage-gap/” text_transform=”” title=”” target=”_blank” link_attributes=”” alignment=”” modal=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” color=”custom” button_gradient_top_color=”#62bd19″ button_gradient_bottom_color=”#62bd19″ button_gradient_top_color_hover=”#00c2e2″ button_gradient_bottom_color_hover=”#00c2e2″ accent_color=”” accent_hover_color=”” type=”” bevel_color=”” size=”” stretch=”yes” icon=”” icon_position=”left” icon_divider=”no” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]Explore all of our “gender wage gap” content[/fusion_button][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_4″ layout=”1_4″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” hover_type=”none” link=”” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” last=”true” border_sizes_top=”0″ border_sizes_bottom=”0″ border_sizes_left=”0″ border_sizes_right=”0″ first=”false”][fusion_widget_area name=”avada-blog-sidebar” title_size=”” title_color=”” background_color=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” /][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

  • The gender wage gap

    The gender wage gap

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    Download this research brief (in English/en Français).
    Download the infographic (in English/en Français).

    Overview

    The gender wage gap is the difference in remuneration for paid work between women and men. There are many ways to calculate the gap, depending on what employment dynamics you want to identify.[1] Failure to offer equal pay for equal work, where women are paid less than men for performing the same job, accounts for a ~95 cent wage gap. More of the wage gap is explained by mothers who change jobs to ones with greater flexibility to manage their carework responsibilities. This often means switching to jobs that pay less and takes the wage gap to ~88 cents. When comparing annual earnings for both part-time and full-time workers in Canada, an even larger gender wage gap exists of ~70 cents, primarily because women more often work part-time in order to accommodate carework responsibilities.[2]

    In Canada, the gender wage gap ranges from 95 cents to 70 cents.

    Sources of the gender wage gap

    The gender wage gap varies by race and ethnicity.[3] According to The 2011 National Household Survey, when full-time median employment income is analyzed there is a ~92 cent wage gap between visible and non-visible minority women and a ~72 cent wage gap between visible minority men and women.[4] Earnings disparities are evident among transgender individuals as well. The 2011 Trans PULSE survey finds that while 71% of trans people in Ontario surveyed have at least some college or university education, about half make $15,000 per year or less.[5] 

    One major cause of the wage gap is job segregation. A whole host of factors conspire to segregate women into occupational fields that pay less,[6] such as childcare and retail.[7] Within firms, this might mean that women end up in internal, back-office roles rather than external or revenue-producing roles. Women also confront a motherhood penalty. Mothers are perceived to be less competent, and the time they take off work to have children decelerates salary raises and promotions.[8]    

    People looking to get ahead in their jobs must often work long hours, but the gendered allocation of family responsibilities prevents women from being able to do this.[9] As a result, jobs requiring employees to work long hours produce some of the largest wage gaps.[10] 

    How to address the gender wage gap

    Several efforts have been put forth for addressing the gender wage gap, some of which have mixed results:

    • Pay transparency: Pay transparency (such as Provincial Sunshine laws) can reduce the wage gap. Recent regulation in the UK has mainly highlighted the dearth of women in top earning roles and has had less to say about actual problems with equal pay for equal work. Compelling pay transparency may risk that companies focus on public relations rather than on substantive change.[11]
    • Pay equity: Canada is a leader in Pay Equity legislation. Evidence suggests that pay equity has provided gains for women working in the public sector but because its application is focused on relatively narrow comparisons of job classes, it has not had a substantial impact on the larger wage gap.[12]   
    • Salary history bans: Because women have wage disparities beginning with their first job, salary history bans (in which employers are prohibited from asking potential employees about prior salaries) could be a helpful intervention in preventing the gap from widening.[13] However, employers can also find ways around the ban by asking about salary expectations instead of previous salaries.[14]   

    Management might also consider:

    • Redesign job structures: In the pharmacy industry, technological improvements to job design such as the standardization of procedures and the creation of online databases, have decreased the costs of temporal flexibility for female pharmacists, and basically closed the gender wage gap in that field. [15]   
    • Reconsider valorizing working long hours: In many professions, it may be assumed that long hours and extensive “face time” is associated with top performance. But, some of those assumptions are out dated. Leaders can transform workplace cultures that place too much emphasis on working long hours and instead focus on outcomes.[16]
    • Support more accessible childcare: As long as family responsibilities are unequally shared, the gender gap is not likely to close.[17] Providing affordable and accessible onsite childcare or subsidizing access to other child care sources may help parents who wish to work full-time.
    • Provide growth opportunities: Many organizations assume that mothers are not interested in advancement or tough assignments that might lead to promotions. Organizations can do a better job of giving opportunities to people who want them and would benefit from them.

    References

    [1] Rubery, J., & Grimshaw, D. (2014). The 40-year pursuit of equal pay: a case of constantly moving goalposts. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 39(2), 319-343.

    [2] Canadian Women’s Foundation, The Facts About The Gender Wage Gap in Canada: https://www.canadianwomen.org/the-facts/the-wage-gap/

    Sarah Kaplan, The Motherhood Penalty, University of Toronto Magazine: https://magazine.utoronto.ca/opinion/the-motherhood-penalty-gender-wage-gap-sarah-kaplan/

    [3] Kate McInturff, The Gendered And Racialized Wage Gap, Canadian Women’s Foundation: https://www.canadianwomen.org/deficit-worth-worrying-gendered-racialized-wage-gap/

    [4] Statistics Canada, Visible Minority Women: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-503-x/2015001/article/14315-eng.htm

    [5] Bauer G, Nussbaum N, Travers R, Munro L, Pyne J, Redman N. We’ve Got Work to Do: Workplace Discrimination and Employment Challenges for Trans People in Ontario. Trans PULSE e-Bulletin, 30 May, 2011. 2(1). Downloadable in English or French at http://www.transpulseproject.ca

    [6] Petersen, T., & Morgan, L. A. (1995). Separate and unequal: Occupation-establishment sex segregation and the gender wage gap. American Journal of Sociology, 101(2), 329-365.

    Reskin, B. F., & Roos, P. A. (2009). Job queues, gender queues: Explaining women’s inroads into male occupations. Temple University Press.

    Levanon, A., England, P., & Allison, P. (2009). Occupational feminization and pay: Assessing causal dynamics using 1950–2000 US census data. Social Forces, 88(2), 865-891.

    [7] England, P., Budig, M., & Folbre, N. (2002). Wages of virtue: The relative pay of care work. Social problems, 49(4), 455-473.

    [8] Budig, M. J., & England, P. (2001). The wage penalty for motherhood. American sociological review, 204-225.

    Budig, M. J., Misra, J., & Boeckmann, I. (2012). The motherhood penalty in cross-national perspective: The importance of work-family policies and cultural attitudes. Social Politics, 19(2), 163-193.

    Kleven, H., Landais, C., and Søgaard J. E.. (2018). “Children and Gender Inequality: Evidence from Denmark.” Working Paper. National Bureau of Economic Research, 1-57. 

    [9] Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender & Society, 4(2), 139-158.

    Reid, E. (2015). Embracing, passing, revealing, and the ideal worker image: How people navigate expected and experienced professional identities. Organization Science, 26(4), 997-1017.

    [10] Goldin, C., 2014. A grand gender convergence: Its last chapter. American Economic Review, 104(4), pp.1091–1119.

    [11] Sarah Kaplan, The Motherhood Penalty, University of Toronto Magazine: https://magazine.utoronto.ca/opinion/the-motherhood-penalty-gender-wage-gap-sarah-kaplan/

    [12] Singh, P., & Peng, P. (2010). Canada’s bold experiment with pay equity. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 25(7), 570-585.

    [13] Corbett, C., & Hill, C. (2012). Graduating to a Pay Gap: The Earnings of Women and Men One Year after College Graduation. American Association of University Women.

    Christina Cauterucci, Equal Pay Legislation Banning Salary History Questions Is Absolutely Based in Data, Slate: https://slate.com/human-interest/2017/04/equal-pay-legislation-banning-salary-history-questions-is-based-in-data.html

    [14] Adler, Laura. 2019. “You’re Worth What You’re Paid: Why Employers Use Past Pay to Set Future Pay.” Working Paper. Harvard University.

    [15] Goldin, C., & Katz, L. F. (2016). A most egalitarian profession: pharmacy and the evolution of a family-friendly occupation. Journal of Labor Economics, 34(3), 705-746.

    [16] Goldin, C., 2014. A grand gender convergence: Its last chapter. American Economic Review, 104(4), pp.1091–1119.

    [17] Angelov, N., Johansson, P. and Lindahl, E., 2016. Parenthood and the gender gap in Pay. Journal of Labor Economics, 34(3), pp.545-579.

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    Published

    April 23, 2019

    This research brief was funded by the Government of Canada’s Labour Program for the Women in the Workplace Symposium that took place at Rotman on May 09/10, 2019.

    The opinions and interpretations in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Canada.

    To see more from this event, check out #Womenintheworkplace.

    Government of Canada logo

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  • Why the ‘business case’ for hiring more women isn’t working

    Why the ‘business case’ for hiring more women isn’t working

    Written by Sarah Kaplan and Nancy Wilson
    Contributed to The Globe and Mail
    Published March 5, 2019

    As we mark International Women’s Day on Friday, many people – including us – will note that not enough progress has been made on women’s economic inclusion. Many will argue that we need to convince more corporate leaders to support the cause and, to do so, we need to make the business case for investing in diversity. Yet, despite a decade of reports from prominent consulting firms and other organizations making just this case, progress in Canada and around the world has stalled. And this very desire to make the business case might be part of the problem.

    It’s not that there aren’t good business reasons for companies to be more diverse and inclusive. But there are two problems with the obsession with the business case logic. First, requiring a business case implies that women and minorities must do better than the (white, straight, male) status quo to gain entry into opportunities. Second, research has found that a business case mindset risks reducing women and minorities to mere inputs to be measured against the financial bottom line. The social goal of diversity is converted into a commodity to be valued, exploited and, perhaps, discarded if the business case doesn’t pan out.

    The business case can wrap decision-makers in the comfortable numbness of business jargon, focusing on shareholder value creation or profits while minimizing any mention of marginalized communities or the common good. The business case is designed precisely to remove emotion from decision-making, but the latest research points out that the emotional sense of outrage about inequality is what can drive disruptive action. It is no surprise, then, that diversity and inclusion policies are often no more than window dressing or incremental and incomplete.

    If indeed the business case for diversity and inclusion had persuasive power, Corporate Canada would look very different than it does today. In the top 100 companies of the S&P/TSX Composite Index, we find only one female CEO and six women board chairs. Meanwhile, a 2018 benchmarking study on diversity and inclusion revealed a gap between the stated level of support by management and the resources devoted toward implementation of policies in the workplace.

    Diversity and inclusion are regularly discussed as aspirations, or stretch goals. The reality is, equality is codified in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as is freedom from discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, and a variety of other factors. Provincial labour laws, such as Ontario’s pay equity and pay transparency acts, protect employees from discrimination, as well.

    Many firms will feel that they have complied fully with these laws, but compliance may only be to the letter of the law and not the spirit. If women are not given the same opportunities to work on projects that lead to promotions; or if women who take advantage of company policies for flexible work are seen as less committed; or if a manager schedules daily meetings before 9 or after 5 making it hard for people with school drop-off and pickup responsibilities to participate; or if hiring managers don’t go the extra mile to include women in short lists for jobs; or if male senior executives refuse to sponsor more junior women for fear of false #MeToo complaints; then organizations are not actually working to achieve gender equality.

    And here’s another research finding: the legal necessity of equality is not only the law of the land, but focusing on it also eliminates the opportunity to distance oneself emotionally from the crux of the issue: fair and equitable treatment of fellow human beings. Our laws bind us as a larger society under a common ethical and moral umbrella. If the cost of equality is having uncomfortable discussions about what is right and wrong, it is time to pay up.

    We are not debating the business case itself. Many are convinced that the case has already been made. However, recent research makes it clear that using the business case as a starting point can be counterproductive. We need to flip the script. Complex social issues such as changing social norms and challenging stereotypes cannot be reduced to a spreadsheet. They can only be tackled with an unreserved, passionate commitment from senior leaders. If someone asks for the business case, don’t bother; they’re looking for a reason to say no or go slow.

    To view this piece on The Globe and Mail’s website, follow this link
  • Sarah Kaplan appears before the Senate Standing Committee on National Finance

    Sarah Kaplan appears before the Senate Standing Committee on National Finance

    Sarah Kaplan was invited to speak before the Senate Standing Committee on National Finance regarding Bill C-86 on December 05, 2018.

    Bill C-86 is the second Budget Implementation Act for Budget 2018 and includes several measures to increase women’s participation in the workforce (e.g. the Employment Insurance Parental Sharing Benefit), assure pay equity in federally regulated workplaces, and promote gender budgeting. Bill C-86 also establishes the Department for Women and Gender Equality (WAGE), previously known as Status of Women Canada.

    You can download the full testimony here, as well as read it below. If you’d like to watch the meeting in full, including Sarah Kaplan’s testimony, click here.


    Testimony before Senate Standing Committee on National Finance regarding Bill C-86

    Good evening.

    It is an honor to appear before this Committee to comment on Bill C-86, as it relates to the creation of the Department for Women and Gender Equality.

    I am a Professor and Director of the Institute for Gender and the Economy at the University of Toronto. In this role, I promote the use of rigorous academic research to inform policy and practice, with a specific goal of supporting innovative new solutions to achieving gender equality.

    There are a number of reasons that the creation of this Department will yield progress on equality in Canadian society.

    First, it announces and anchors equality as a central value for Canadians. Its name signals its focus on women and also people of diverse genders, including two-spirit, gender nonbinary and trans people. It further signals attention to men and masculinities. As we have learned from recent efforts to improve parental leave policies, it is vital to pay attention to facilitating new norms of masculinity that can transform caregiving and paid work for men, women, and people of diverse genders.

    Relatedly, I would also like to call to your attention the importance of the section under “powers and duties” which includes understanding “the intersection of sex and gender with other identity factors that include race, national and ethnic origin, Indigenous origin or identify, age, sexual orientation, socio-economic conditions, place of residence and disability.” That the department would have this mandate to put intersectionality front and centre is essential for the pursuit of equality because we know that most barriers to full participation in all spheres of peoples’ lives come precisely at these points of intersection.

    Second, appropriately funded and resourced, the department can serve as a centre of excellence for capabilities in gender analysis and policy-making. While some form of gender analysis has been mandated since 1995 at the Federal level, we still lack essential capabilities for conducting and using these analyses — and this is at the Federal, Provincial and local levels of government as well as in the corporate and non-profit spheres. Gender analysis at its best should be used for three interrelated sets of activities: (1) qualitative and quantitative need finding, (2) policy design and implementation, and (3) policy evaluation. To date, most of the efforts have been placed on the third step: we formulate a policy and then see what the gender effects might be, perhaps implementing remedial steps to try to fix any adverse impacts. And, I worry that even this third step may not be conducted at a sufficient level of depth, with the right level of research and analysis, especially including the intersections I mentioned above.

    Take for example, the Innovation Superclusters Initiative which, in its own program guide, admitted that it will be investing in industries that “attract more skilled workers who are men compared to women.” It indicated that, to address this problem, applicants must “articulate how they will endeavor to increase female representation concerning both employment and leadership.” However, if we were to have started with a gender analysis, we might have designed a supercluster initiative that had inclusive innovation at its base rather than as an additional consideration. We don’t even know what kinds of models we might be able to invent if we used gender analysis for innovative policy design rather than for remediation.

    Thus, using gender analysis from the outset might have the potential to change and improve policy design. For example, in infrastructure investment, we know that investments in local-stop public transportation differentially benefit women and children while investments in highways differentially benefit men who tend to drive and commute longer distances. Or, a true analysis of the impacts of maternity leave would have shown that extension of such leaves to 18 months is a poor substitute for more accessible childcare and can do serious damage to women’s attachment to the labour force. Such information should shape choices about how policies, budgets and taxes are decided.

    The Department has the opportunity to develop gender analysis capabilities and support other departments and agencies in meeting their mandate to do true gender budgeting. This will strengthen the national capacity to advance gender equality in all of its intersections. But, capability development takes time. It requires sustained investment and an accumulation of data, research and experience over years. It requires support for an ecosystem of government bodies, grassroots organizations and business. Creating a department assures that this accumulation process cannot be interrupted or set back—as it has been in the past—without the significant public debate that comes with the legislative process.

    Third, again with adequate funding and resources, the Department can also be a source of policy innovation based on the gender analysis it will conduct and support. Gender analysis, as I mentioned before, will be least effective it is only used as a policy evaluation tool. Its true power will come when the insights generated lead to innovative policies that overcome many of the impasses faced by efforts to achieve gender equality to date. For example, today we worry that not enough women enter into entrepreneurship, so we layer on special pools of funds to the Business Development Bank for female entrepreneurs. But, what if we used research and analysis to develop new, inclusive models for promoting entrepreneurship that might help the BDC reinvent entirely how it works? We cannot know without the careful work of a Department dedicated to making the most of research and analysis on current inequalities and also on key mechanisms for overcoming them.

    In conclusion, on a personal note, and speaking as an immigrant to Canada, I can say that Canada today has the opportunity to be a global beacon of light when it comes to gender equality. The creation of a Department of Women and Gender Equality can be a powerful symbol of Canada’s commitment to these issues and a source of innovation and insight for Canada and the world as we continue to work towards equality.

    I am at your disposal to answer any questions.

    Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup.


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  • The Motherhood Penalty

    The Motherhood Penalty

    Ontario has had the world’s most advanced pay equity legislation for more than 30 years. And yet women in the province still earn significantly less, on average, than men. Why?

    We read the papers and see Iceland and the U.K. and other jurisdictions passing new laws focused on equal pay, and our first reaction is to think that Ontario needs to get on the bandwagon. But, in reality, Ontario’s 1987 Pay Equity Act (which is further bolstered by the Human Rights Code and recent changes in the Employment Standards Act) is actually state of the art. Many of the pay transparency provisions emerging in countries around the world are occurring in jurisdictions that did not have the excellent legislation that we already have. And their provisions are not as effective or targeted as those that we have in place. If you review the company reports coming out of the U.K., you will learn, for example, that the large Canadian banks operating there have a 30 to 60 per cent wage gap. But, those reports don’t tell us anything about pay. Instead, they simply show that these companies (and most of the rest of the companies reporting) have few women in top jobs (which pay more than jobs at lower tiers of the organization). It says nothing about whether or not women and men are paid the same for the same jobs.

    Read the full op-ed here.
  • Sarah Kaplan appears before the Standing Committee on Social Policy regarding Bill 3

    Sarah Kaplan appears before the Standing Committee on Social Policy regarding Bill 3

    The Pay Transparency Act ( Bill 3) – an Act respecting transparency of pay in employment, has been proposed by the Ontario Legislature. In general, pay transparency laws, which have been enacted in states such as the United Kingdom, as well as Iceland, Denmark and Belgium, require employers to disclose wage data by sex in an effort to close the gender wage gap.

    Sarah Kaplan was invited to speak before the Standing Committee on Social Policy regarding Bill 3 on April 18, 2018, to discuss the sources of the gender wage gap, and the potential impact of the proposed legislation.

    You can download the full testimony here and read it below.


    Testimony before Standing Committee on Social Policy regarding Bill 3 at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

    Good afternoon.

    It is an honor to appear before this Committee to comment on Bill 3 on pay transparency.

    I’m Sarah Kaplan and I am a Professor of Strategy and the Director of the Institute for Gender and the Economy at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. In this role, I promote the use of rigorous academic research to inform policy and practice, which is particularly important in the realm of gender and diversity where many common beliefs are not actually supported by data and may end up getting in the way of progress. One such area is indeed the gender wage gap.

    In this light, I’d like to say a bit about what we know about the sources of the gender wage gap. When people hear that term, they often imagine that this is coming from women being paid less than men for the same job. Of course, there are many high-profile cases such as the 2017 settlement of a human rights claim against the LCBO for paying the (mainly female) part time retail workers less per hour than the mainly male full-time workers. However, research shows that in aggregate, the violation of equal pay for equal work accounts for only a small part of the total wage gap or about 4%, where women earn 96 cents for every dollar a man earns. Now even that amount is unacceptable, and – accumulated over a lifetime ¬– can create substantial gaps in savings. However, there are other more important factors at work.

    The state of the art research suggests that the majority of the wage gap opens up around the time of the birth of the first child, and this is the case even in some of the most gender equal societies such as in Scandinavia, where their wage gap is stuck at about the same as ours (88 cents when comparing hourly wages of full-time workers). Why would this be? The evidence suggests that even if women return to the workforce after having children, they often switch careers to a job that will allow them more flexibility to cope with responsibilities at home. This is the case because women still perform much more care work and are expected to put caring over career (in Ontario, according to StatsCan, women do 50% more work at home than men). Thus, if a woman were in a client-facing role before, she might move into an internal role; or she might switch from a corporate job to a government or non-profit job. And, these jobs are often paid less than the jobs that men can maintain even after they have children. Most of the wage gap can be explained by this career-switching effect.

    The other “wage gap” number you have heard, for example from Minister Flynn at the 2nd reading of this Bill, is 70 cents. This is the number you get when you compare the weekly wages of all working women and men: it’s lower than the 88 cents because many more women work part time. Again, what accounts for that difference in part-time work? It is because women are expected to do more care work.

    And, whether it is career-switching or part-time work, there is no pay transparency law that is going to fix these largest sources of the wage gap. What has been shown to help is comprehensive state-supported childcare, equal parental leaves for men and women, and changing expectations at work and at home about the division of care work.

    That being said, let me comment on what Bill 3 might be able to accomplish.

    First, we should recognize that the Province of Ontario already has world-leading pay equity legislation which covers many more organizations (both public and private and all the way down to those with 10+ employees) than those contemplated at the introduction of this Bill. Many of the pay transparency provisions that served as benchmarks for Bill 3 – such as in Germany, Australia or the UK – are occurring in jurisdictions that did not already have the excellent existing legislation that we have. And, their provisions are not as effective or targeted as those which we have in place. If you review the company reports coming out of the UK, you will learn that, for example, The Royal Bank’s UK operations have a 30-60% wage gap. But, those reports don’t tell us anything about pay. Instead, they simply show that RBC (and most of the rest of the companies reporting) have few women in top jobs.

    The Ontario Pay Equity Act is already quite comprehensive. The most important weakness is that there is no reporting requirement, so enforcement is primarily audit- or complaint-based. Quebec, which implemented similar Pay Equity Legislation to ours in 1996, has added a reporting requirement. To my view, implementing reporting and enforcement within the Pay Equity Act framework is a smarter, more efficient, lower cost solution for all parties including the government, employees and employers. I worry that the proposed approach for reporting and enforcement in Bill 3 will confuse employers and put unnecessary additional burdens on them. We already have more than 30 years of expertise, tools, techniques and capabilities in implementing pay equity in organizations through the Pay Equity Office. Shouldn’t we build and reinforce those capabilities rather than creating a separate system that is not fully aligned with the existing Act?

    A further challenge we face in the Province is that enforcement of Pay Equity is separate from enforcement of equal pay for equal work (the former occurring through the Pay Equity Office and the latter through the Ministry of Labour). Because these two aspects of the gender wage gap are so tightly intertwined, I would also recommend that enforcement be brought together under one roof.

    A question then remains as to whether or not the reporting should be public. There are two possible reasons that reporting might work to change organizational behavior. The first, is to “name and shame” companies into action. However, this is the same logic applied by the Ontario Securities Commission in its “comply or explain” rules for disclosing numbers of women on boards. That regulation has been in place for 3 years and – despite a lot of press coverage – we have seen very little movement in the numbers over that time.

    The second reason for reporting is that it would help organizations diagnose their specific issues and make targeted changes. This is the area that I believe would be the most effective; however, doing this does not require that the reports be made public. It would be enough to report the information into the Pay Equity Office who would then be able to engage more productively with organizations that are not in compliance. I worry that public reporting might force organizations to focus more on the PR aspects rather than on looking hard at the issues and fixing the problems.

    In short, I believe that the goals of the current version of Bill 3 are laudable but we would be much better served as a Province by using these energies to amend the current Pay Equity Act to include reporting and expand their scope for enforcement. Of course, this would need to come with adequate funding.

    I am happy to comment about other provisions of the Bill in the Q&A. I would like to conclude, however, with a note that these gender wage gap figures, whether they be 96 cents or 88 cents or 70 cents are average numbers and disguise even more substantial gaps for women of color, indigenous women, LBTQ women, women with disabilities and also gender non-binary people. So, I would encourage any legislation and subsequent regulations to keep these important intersections top of mind.

    Thank you very much.


    To see more content related to The Pay Transparency Act, you can view this video from CBC Business with Sarah Kaplan; and listen to Dionne Pohler’s interview with Ontario Today; as well as read her op-ed in The Globe and Mail. 
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  • Busted

    Busted

    [fusion_builder_container type=”flex” hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” border_style=”solid”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_repeat=”no-repeat” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”true” hover_type=”none” first=”true” background_blend_mode=”overlay” min_height=”” link=””][fusion_text hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″]

    Does achieving gender equality only benefit women? Are gender quotas thwarting meritocracy? Are women more risk averse than men? If you think you know the answers to these questions, then think again! Busted is an audio podcast series that busts prominent myths surrounding gender and the economy by teaming up with leading experts in the field. We uncover the origins of each myth and give you the tools to bust each myth yourself!

    Listen now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

    You can support our work by rating and subscribing to this podcast! Help us get the word out.

    [/fusion_text][fusion_accordion type=”toggles” inactive_icon=”” active_icon=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” boxed_mode=”” border_size=”1″ border_color=”” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” hover_color=”” background_color=”” divider_line=”” divider_hover_color=”” divider_color=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” title_tag=”h4″ fusion_font_family_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_title_font=”” title_font_size=”” title_line_height=”” title_letter_spacing=”” title_text_transform=”” title_color=”#333333″ icon_size=”” icon_color=”” icon_boxed_mode=”” icon_box_color=”” icon_alignment=”” fusion_font_family_content_font=”” fusion_font_variant_content_font=”” content_font_size=”” content_line_height=”” content_letter_spacing=”” content_text_transform=”” content_color=”#111111″ toggle_hover_accent_color=”” toggle_active_accent_color=”” parent_dynamic_content=””][fusion_toggle title=”Busted Season Four” open=”yes” awb-switch-editor-focus=”” class=”” id=”” fusion_font_family_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_title_font=”” title_font_size=”” title_line_height=”” title_letter_spacing=”” title_text_transform=”” title_color=”#333333″ hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” fusion_font_family_content_font=”” fusion_font_variant_content_font=”” content_font_size=”” content_line_height=”” content_letter_spacing=”” content_text_transform=”” content_color=”#111111″]

    Episode 24: Busting myths around Indigenous entrepreneurship

    Indigenous entrepreneurship has existed across Turtle Island long before settler colonization. But today, there are still so many myths about Indigenous businesses — including the idea that Indigenous people aren’t entrepreneurs, that they rely on government handouts, and that they need to be taught how to build successful businesses. None of that is true. In fact, Indigenous entrepreneurship is thriving — and it’s rooted in long-standing traditions of innovation, sustainability, and community care. In this episode, we bust those myths and explore how Indigenous ways of doing business can challenge — and improve — how we all think about entrepreneurship.

    View show notes

    Episode 23: Myth: Philanthropy belongs to rich, white men

    When most people think about philanthropy, they picture rich, often white, men, writing huge cheques for whatever cause they decide to get behind. And billionaire philanthropy has faced growing criticism: is it really philanthropy, or is it just a sneaky way for the wealthy to avoid taxes and reinforce inequality? But this perspective leaves out a much broader, richer history – one where women, members of racialized communities, LGBTQ+ folks, and others have long used the power of voluntary giving to contribute to the public good and drive important social change. In this episode, we speak to researchers who are challenging the dominant narrative, expanding our understanding of who gives, why they give, and how philanthropy has always belonged to more than just a select few.

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    Episode 22: Myth: Care work is low value

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, we got a sense of how devalued care work really is. Care workers were, and still are, working long hours in poor conditions, for low pay, to support elders, children, and people with disabilities. These care workers provide some of the most essential labour in our society, but their work is often overlooked. We rarely stop to think about how much we rely on care, and how everything would fall apart without it. That neglect has consequences: care workers have been leaving the sector, and we’re now facing a global care crisis, with not nearly enough carers to support everyone who needs care. In this episode, we’ll be busting the myth that care work is low value, and talk about what it would look like if society recognized that our communities and economies are built on and sustained by care. 

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    Episode 21: Myth: The tradwife movement empowers women by affirming traditional gender roles

    If you’ve been on social media lately, you might have seen some content about the tradwife movement and from tradwives themselves. Popular tradwife accounts post photos and videos of an idealized domestic lifestyle – taking care of children, cooking from scratch, baking bread, and keeping a clean and organized house – often with a feminine aesthetic that harkens back to the 1950s. They make beautiful content that showcases the value of “traditionally” gendered households, where men are the bread-winners and women are the bread-makers. It might be easy to think that this movement is simply about empowering women to return to tradition. But, when you dig deeper, there’s much more to the story. In this episode, we speak with researchers to unpack the tradwife movement, what it does, and who it really benefits.

    View show notes

    Episode 20: Myth: The business case for diversity is effective in creating equality

    When we talk about an organization’s “case” for diversity, we’re talking about the set of justifications or reasons it gives for why diversity is an important organizational value. A common case that organizations make for promoting DEI is the business case for diversity: the idea that diversity is important because it boosts an organization’s bottom line. The business case seems harmless, or maybe even helpful, but research has found that using it to advocate for equality could, in some cases, be doing more harm than good. This episode debunks the myth that the business case for diversity is effective for creating equality for marginalized groups.

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    Episode 19: Myth: Women should step aside as they age; men should step up

    While anyone can experience ageism at work, research shows that women tend to have unique, and typically more severe, experiences. No matter how accomplished they are and no matter how effective they continue to be, older women are perceived as ageing out of relevance. It’s a different story for older men. They’re usually perceived as aging into wisdom and given more power and leadership opportunities. In this episode, we’ll bust this myth—that older women should step aside while older men should step up—and explore the gendered nature of ageism.

    View show notes

    [/fusion_toggle][fusion_toggle title=”Busted Season Three” open=”yes” title_color=”#333333″ content_color=”#111111″]

    Episode 18: Myth: Artificial intelligence is bias-free

    Many people think of AI as objective and neutral, something that not only makes our lives easier, but also helps us to eliminate the biases that plague human cognition and decision-making. While it’s true AI can do a lot for us, it’s a myth that AI is bias-free. In fact, AI can amplify the bias and perpetuate the inequality that is already rampant in our society. In this episode, we’ll explore how and why AI isn’t as fair as we’d like to believe, the consequences of bias in AI, and what responsible and ethical AI could look like.

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    Episode 17: Special Episode – Dr. Jen Gunter on menstruation myths

    Dr. Jen Gunter joined us at the Rotman School of Management to talk about her new book, Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation. In this conversation with GATE’s founding director, Dr. Sarah Kaplan, she discusses the many myths around menstruation and the impact that misinformation and stigma about menstruation have on women’s health and on society. Listen in to learn about how periods and reproductive health are linked to purity culture and patriarchy, as well as to social, economic, and political outcomes.

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    Episode 16: Myth: Being LGBTQ+ doesn’t matter at work

    What does being LGBTQ+ have to do with your job? Actually, a whole lot. LGBTQ+ people face many barriers at work, and to being employed in the first place – like hiring discrimination, microaggressions, and lower earnings. And, if people feel like they have to hide who they are at work, it can take a huge toll. Sexual and gender identity are a part of who we are, and like other aspects of our identities, they affect how people perceive us and the opportunities we have. This episode busts the myth that being LGBTQ+ doesn’t matter at work.

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    Episode 15: Myth: Women don’t make good political leaders

    In Canada, only 30% of Members of Parliament are women, and only 16% belong to a racial minority group, well below their 26% representation in the overall Canadian population. On the other hand, white men are over-represented in political leadership, and that’s not only the case in Canada, but in many other countries as well. People may – consciously or subconsciously – think that that’s because women, racialized folks, and members of other underrepresented groups just don’t make good political leaders. But the reality is that there are a lot of factors contributing to the political underrepresentation we see today. In this episode, we’re going to be busting the myth that women and members of other underrepresented groups just aren’t suited to political leadership.

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    Episode 14: Myth: Accessibility is optional

    Accessibility is about making information, resources, activities, and environments, well, accessible. That means that everyone should be able to engage with these things with minimal effort and as meaningfully as possible. Countries around the world including Canada and the US have adopted accessibility laws, but there’s still a huge disconnect between how important this issue is and how much attention it receives. Many people don’t think about accessibility at all. Or if they do, they think of it as a nice-to-have that’s kind of optional or that’s it’s just about accommodations and modification to physical space.

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    Episode 13: Myth: Care work is women’s work

    Care work is foundational to societies and to humanity. But even though everyone needs care, care work and those who provide it are often ignored, trivialized, or devalued. Why? Part of the reason is that care work is gendered: there’s a myth that care work is women’s work and that women just have the natural skill to be carers. In this episode, experts share research that shows that caring for others is a skill that anyone can and should learn – and if everyone participated in care, we could have more empathetic, healthier societies and relationships.

    Download show notes

    [/fusion_toggle][fusion_toggle title=”Busted Season Two” open=”yes” title_color=”#333333″ content_color=”#111111″]

    Episode 12: Special Episode–Dr. Sarah Kaplan on the gender pay gap 

    What causes the gender pay gap? Is it just because women are choosing lower-paying jobs? Are they just not qualified enough to make higher salaries? Think again. There are structural and historical dynamics that lead to unequal outcomes we observe in pay today. This episode with GATE founder, Dr. Sarah Kaplan, delves into how labour market biases influences the gender pay gap. 

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    Episode 11: Special EpisodeDr. Tina Opie on Shared Sisterhood 

    How can we make meaningful progress on equity and inclusion? Now that we’ve busted many different myths about gender and the economy, you might be wondering about more concrete steps you can take to change inequality in your workplace and daily life. On this special episode, Dr. Tina Opie shares three practices for dismantling systemic inequities from her book Shared Sisterhood: How to Take Collective Action for Racial and Gender Equity at Work, co-authored with Dr. Beth A. Livingston. This special episode was written and produced by the team at our sister podcast, Rotman Visiting Experts. 


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    Episode 10 – Myth: Gender-based violence is a private issue

    Overview: There’s a perception that gender-based violence (GBV) only happens in the home, and that means it’s a private matter, just for families or partners to deal with. This is a misconception that can keep survivors from reporting violence and finding support. Gender-based violence is a human rights violation that encompasses many types of actions including harassment, assault, manipulation, and abuse. It can happen anywhere, including in workplaces, schools, and public spaces, and has significant consequences for all of society. In this episode, we hear from experts from different organizations working against gender-based violence to understand why it is not a private issue but something that everyone should be working to address.

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    Episode 9 – Special Episode – Busting Myths on Remote Work and Inequality

    Since the pandemic, remote work has become much more commonplace, especially for knowledge workers. While it has many advantages for workers, remote work isn’t going to mitigate inequality unless organizations implement it purposefully and with the intention to prioritize well-being and equity for workers. This episode delves into the effects of remote work on workplace inequality and makes suggestions for better workplaces for all. This special episode was written and produced by Rotman Executive Summary and features GATE’s director, Sarah Kaplan, and Senior Research Associate Carmina Ravanera.

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    Episode 8 – Myth – Women don’t negotiate

    If women just negotiated more, maybe they’d close the gender pay gap, right? Think again. While some popular media has characterized women as just needing to step up and ask for more to change inequality, research shows that when they do negotiate, they often face backlash for going against gender norms. In this episode, we discuss how people of different social groups experience different responses when they try to negotiate – and how women negotiate in many different ways beyond just for pay.

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    Episode 7 – Myth – Good leadership is masculine leadership 

    What makes a good leader? When you hear this question, do you think about traits like assertiveness, ambition, and determination?  A lot of people may be surprised to realize that as a society, we often associate good leadership with stereotypically masculine traits. In fact, a range of different traits—including both stereotypically masculine and feminine traits—make effective leaders. This episode delves into the myth that good leadership is masculine leadership and explores how we can facilitate more diverse and representative leaders across our workplaces and our societies.  

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    Episode 6 – Myth: Gender inequality has a one-size-fits-all solution

    What is intersectionality, anyway? We’ll demystify it in this episode–and delve into the myth that gender inequality can have a one-size-fits-all solution. Intersectionality shows us how we need to consider how our different social identities such as race, gender, religion, Indigeneity, immigrant status, disability, and sexual identity all intersect to play a significant role in how we experience the world. So, rather than creating policies, services, and research that homogenize people, we need to make sure we apply intersectionality—or we risk leaving people behind. 

    Download show notes

    [/fusion_toggle][fusion_toggle title=”Busted Season One” open=”yes” title_color=”#333333″ content_color=”#111111″]Episode 1 – Myth: Gender Equality Only Benefits Women

    Conversations around gender equality tend to focus on the significant barriers to resources and opportunities that women face. As a result of this focus, there is a pervasive myth that gender equality will only benefit women. Yet, contrary to this myth, gender equality benefits everyone. All people grapple with gender roles and stereotypes. We bust this myth with leading experts to show how, faster child development, greater peace, and economic prosperity are related to gender equality!

    Download show notes here

    Episode 2 Myth: Gender quotas thwart meritocracy

    The issue of whether to implement gender quotas for leadership positions, boards, political parties, and other groups is hotly debated. Some have argued that quotas are necessary to push gender equality forward and create a more level playing field. Others believe that implementing quotas gives an unfair advantage to women who do not deserve these positions: if they did deserve them, they would achieve them on their own merit. In other words, they perceive that gender quotas thwart meritocracy. We bust this myth with leading experts to show how quotas can actually be more beneficial than harmful.

    Download show notes here

    Episode 3 Myth: It’s Not Us, It’s the Pipeline

    There is a common belief that women are underrepresented in fields dominated by men, such as in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) sectors, because there are just not enough women in the pipeline. Some have argued that women choose not to enter these careers because they simply have different preferences or aspirations. In turn, this implies that companies and firms do not have responsibility for a lack of gender diversity. However, this is a myth. A substantial number of women are qualified to work in fields dominated by men. For instance, in 2015 in Canada, women accounted for 43% of university graduates from STEM programs. Yet, women with STEM degrees are less likely than men with the same degrees to work in science and technology occupations. We bust this myth with leading experts to show that companies and firms need to take more action to make STEM fields more equitable and less gender-segregated.

    Download show notes here

    Episode 4 Myth: Women Are More Risk-Averse Than Men

    Popular discourse tends to depict women as less likely than men to take risks. Christine LaGarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, famously implied that women make less risky financial decisions when she stated that the financial crisis of 2008 would not have occurred “if it had been Lehman Sisters rather than Lehman Brothers”. But are women really more risk-averse than men? Research has in fact shown that men and women are more similar in their risk preferences than commonly believed. We bust this myth with leading experts to show that women may act more risk-averse only because of gender norms that place expectations on them to do so.

    Download show notes here

    Episode 5 Myth: Sexual Harassment is a Women’s Issue and a Result of Sexual Desire

    Sexual harassment is often portrayed as an issue that only concerns women, where women are victims of harassment because they were “asking for it” through their behaviours or dress. This portrayal puts the onus on women to stop harassment by simply changing their actions. . Yet, sexual harassment is not a “women’s issue” in the sense that victims can be of any gender and perpetrators tend to be men. This perception also ignores the reality that sexual harassment is often about having power and control over someone else. We bust this common myth to show that it is imperative that the social norms that drive harassment and toxic work cultures are addressed instead of blaming the actions of women

    Download show notes here[/fusion_toggle][/fusion_accordion][fusion_separator style_type=”default” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” flex_grow=”0″ alignment=”center” /][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

  • Erasing Barriers: Making the Future of Work Accessible

    Erasing Barriers: Making the Future of Work Accessible

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    Topic: Erasing Barriers: Making the Future of Work Accessible

    GATE co-hosted a panel discussion with Access to Success, a non-profit organization aiming to support the development of future leaders with disabilities and accessibility tech. We heard from four experts and champions for accessible workplaces—Liza Arnason, Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors, ASE Community Foundation for Black Canadians with Disabilities; Simone Lima, former GATE MBA Fellow and Senior Product Manager, Proposify; Tim Rose, Senior Consultant, Accessibility, Client Experience team, CIBC; and Gaurav Upadhya, Global Chief Actuary and Chief Risk Officer at Foresters Financial—and moderator Darrell Bowden, Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the Rotman School.  

    Nearly one-quarter of Canadians live with some form of disability, it’s essential for employers to ensure policies and environments welcome people with disabilities to attract and retain diverse talent. The panel shared their thoughts on the future of work and provided examples of how businesses can take the lessons learnt from the pandemic era about flexible working arrangements to make workplaces more inclusive for people with disabilities and everyone else.   

    Here are their recommendations for employers:  

    • When making policies and processes for people with disabilities, ensure they are “at the table” participating in that decision-making.  
    • Create tools and processes that will facilitate people with disabilities to disclose without stigma.  
    • Ask employees with disabilities what they need to be successful—don’t assume what they need.  
    • Perceive disability as a strength rather than a weakness: disability gives people a valuable lens on the world.  
    • Pay attention to intersectionality and how factors such as race and gender can amplify barriers faced by people with disabilities.  
    • Educate leaders and managers on ableism and how to stop it.   

    “Let’s turn the corporate ladder into a corporate ramp.” – Tim Rose

    Watch highlights from the discussion in which panelists explored the importance of representation in leadership positions and their advice on how to build the talent pipeline.  

    [/fusion_text][fusion_separator style_type=”none” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” top_margin=”20″ bottom_margin=”20″ alignment=”center” /][fusion_button link=”https://www.gendereconomy.org/events/” target=”_blank” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” color=”custom” button_gradient_top_color=”#62bd19″ button_gradient_bottom_color=”#62bd19″ button_gradient_top_color_hover=”#00c2e2″ button_gradient_bottom_color_hover=”#00c2e2″ stretch=”yes” icon_position=”left” icon_divider=”no” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″]See more events[/fusion_button][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

  • Susan Fowler on “Whistleblower: My Unlikely Journey to Silicon Valley and Speaking Out Against Injustice”

    Susan Fowler on “Whistleblower: My Unlikely Journey to Silicon Valley and Speaking Out Against Injustice”

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    Susan Fowler was just twenty-five years old when her blog post titled “Reflecting on One Very, Very Strange Year at Uber,” describing the sexual harassment and retaliation she experienced at Uber riveted the nation. Her post would eventually lead to the ousting of Uber’s powerful CEO, and its ripples extended far beyond that. Her courageous choice to attach her name to the post inspired other women to speak publicly about their experiences. In the year that followed, an unprecedented number of women came forward and Fowler was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the “Silence Breakers” who ignited the #MeToo movement.

    In conversation with Phanikiran Radhakrishnan, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, University of Toronto Scarborough, Department of Management, Fowler, writer and former Technology Op-Ed Editor, New York Times and author discussed her book, “Whistleblower: My Unlikely Journey to Silicon Valley and Speaking Out Against Injustice”. Fowler detailed the retaliation she faced from sexual harassment reporting and drew from her personal experience to offer advice for evaluating prospective workplaces. Although there is now a light on harassment issues, incidents within organizations are often not made public because of restrictive NDAs. While you may not know everything about a company, Fowler stressed that it is important to know your rights as well as who to escalate things to. “One of the most powerful things you can do to protect yourself is find ways to educate yourself about what your legal rights are.”

    Although there is now a light on harassment issues, incidents within organizations are often not made public because of restrictive NDAs.

    How does pay inequity link to harassment?

    It is a red flag – if there is pay inequity, there are probably underlying problems that will raise the likelihood of other forms of discrimination, such as harassment.

    What if the sexual harasser is considered a “high performer”?

    Upon reporting her manager for harassment, Fowler was told he would not be removed because he was considered a high performer. A sexual harasser is never a high performer, according to Fowler. “Not only are they harming other employees, they are a huge liability to the company. That is not being a high performer.”

    How can people support those experiencing harassment?

    • It’s never a bad idea to stand up for someone at work. Susan became isolated at Uber and was told to sit alone. Colleagues came to sit with her to show their support, offering a much needed morale boost.
    • Isolated incidents of harassment happen everywhere, but the key is that it should not become systemic, and it shouldn’t be covered up.
    Watch Fowler discuss the red flags you should be looking out for when researching an organization.

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    Or register below for these upcoming events

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  • Debates and controversies in understanding gender, race and entrepreneurship

    Debates and controversies in understanding gender, race and entrepreneurship

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    Download this research brief (in English/en Français).

    Gender, Race & Entrepreneurship report cover              

    This research overview is based on the fascinating conversations we had in our Workshop on Gender, Race and Entrepreneurship, sponsored by the Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Hub.

    Overview

    Entrepreneurship is a key path to job creation and economic growth in the modern economy, yet women and minorities remain underrepresented. Research to date has documented some “supply side” factors showing that women and/or minorities are less likely to enter entrepreneurship and some “demand side” factors highlighting the struggle these entrepreneurs face in getting funding and other resources.[1] [2] [3] A 2013 review by Jennings and Brush documents many of these insights.[4] We know less, however, about how the supply side and demand side interact and what kinds of interventions might improve outcomes.

    To explore these challenges, the Institute for Gender and the Economy at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management convened a 6-week workshop series in October and November 2020 sponsored by the Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub. Organized by Camille Hebert and Sarah Kaplan, the workshop hosted over 150 scholars from around the world who heard cutting edge research from sociology, economics, management and finance researchers, including Asia Bento (Rice), Ruiqing Cao (Harvard), Alexia Delfino (Bocconi), Stefan Dimitriadis (U Toronto), Sabrina Howell (NYU Stern), Song Ma (Yale), Milan Miric (USC Marshall), Tiantian Yang (Wharton), Emmanuel Yimfor (Michigan Ross), and Jonathan Zandberg (Boston College). In the final session, senior scholars Mike Ewens (Caltech), Fiona Murray (MIT Sloan), Zulema Valdez (UC Merced) discussed the future research agenda for gender and race in entrepreneurship. The workshop and discussions underscored a number of debates and controversies in the entrepreneurship literature which are highlighted below along with a roadmap for a future research agenda in gender, race and entrepreneurship. To learn more about the event, including a video summary, click here.

    What are work and family conditions that shape entry into entrepreneurship?

    When looking at the dearth of women in the entrepreneurial space, people often suggest that it is because women don’t prefer entrepreneurship. However, research is making it increasingly clear that there are other important social and structural factors that shape these choices. A long stream of research has established that motherhood (much more so than fatherhood) leads to career and pay penalties for women, but the effects of motherhood or potential motherhood on entrepreneurship are just starting to be explored. The transition to entrepreneurship can occur during different life stages and at various career trajectories. Understanding life and workplace conditions that women and minority entrepreneurs face is important because these conditions predict the types of businesses created as well as the timing of business creation.

    • Diminishing career opportunities at work accelerates entrepreneurship for women. Individuals may consider entrepreneurship as a career option if they find that opportunities at their current jobs are not sufficient. Reduced career opportunities at work—especially associated with the penalties that women pay for motherhood such as lower pay, fewer paths to promotion, and poor access to family-friendly work policies—increases the likelihood that women will become entrepreneurs.[5]
    • Entrepreneurship may not always be an ideal career outcome for women. For women, the need for flexible time due to work-family conflict can predict entry into self-employment, as self-employment often allows for more flexible work schedules. This highlights the fact that entrepreneurship maybe not always be an ideal outcome for women who may be forced into it because more stable employment is not available. Scholars have called this type of entrepreneurship “Plan B” entrepreneurship and have shown that these constraints often lead to self-employment or small, low-growth businesses [6].
    • The start of family life for women may constrain entrepreneurship. Women who choose to exploit an entrepreneurial idea may also defer family decisions until after they have started their businesses. New research shows that better access to reproductive health care (e.g., access to abortion clinics, emergency contraception, or to fertility programs such as egg freezing) increases women’s entrepreneurship as well as their ability to raise capital and prevent bankruptcy.[7] [8] [9] This evidence suggests that if women do not have access to reproductive healthcare, this may limit their entry into high-growth entrepreneurship which is seen as highly demanding.
    • We may need new approaches to attracting women to entrepreneurship. Recent research shows that men are more likely to be attracted to jobs that demonstrate a potential for high returns to effort (a challenging environment). For women, a higher perceived share of men in a field (which is certainly the case of entrepreneurship) discourages women from entering, with only the most talented applying.[10] This may mean, in the case of entrepreneurship, that too many men are entering at lower quality while not enough women are entering.

    Obstacles in turning entrepreneurial ideas into businesses

    Even if individuals have entrepreneurial ideas, turning those ideas into businesses require being evaluated favourably key stakeholders in in entrepreneurial financing and in commercialization stages. What are the mechanisms that explain how these stakeholders may differentially evaluate entrepreneurial ideas from women and minorities?

    • Networking with venture capital firms may be more difficult for women. Entrepreneurs may experience difficulties in funding depending on their gender or minority status. Because entrepreneurial ideas carry high uncertainty, potential funders including venture capital firms (VCs) rely on personal introductions and referrals for deal sourcing. Yet, a study showed that exposure to networking opportunities benefited male entrepreneurs, but not women.[11] It appears that women may not access these networking opportunities because they felt that the VCs wouldn’t have the background to understand their business, they feared discrimination, or they held themselves to a too-high standard. Thus, designers of innovation incubators, accelerators or pitch competitions should work to reduce these networking-related frictions for women entrepreneurs.
    • Startup pitches are evaluated differently based on gender. In addition to barriers to networking with potential funders, the content of the pitches by female entrepreneurs may be interpreted differently from pitches by male entrepreneurs. Building on research showing that pitches for the identical business by men received more recommendations for funding than pitches by women[12] [13], recent research using video analysis shows that women entrepreneurs, relative to male entrepreneurs, are judged more on delivery than on informational content.[14] This puts women in a double bind because pitches mainly chosen based on delivery, rather than content, were associated with lower ex-post performance, suggesting that investors have biased beliefs about gender. While it may be tempting to tell women that they need to learn to be more persuasive, this may not be particularly helpful. Instead, motivating evaluators to focus more on the content ultimately facilitates financing of the best entrepreneurial ideas. Rather than “fixing the women,” these results point to solutions that “fix the system” (the demand side of entrepreneurship).
    • During the commercialization stage, the paucity of female product evaluators can hurt female entrepreneurs. Beta testers on online platforms are often used to evaluate products in the commercialization stage. However, because these testers are mostly men, they may not accurately assess the products targeting women, hurting the likelihood of women-targeted products developed by female entrepreneurs. As a result, products that are eventually commercialized might not reflect preferences of the entire group of consumers which impacts which products survive and grow.[15] Therefore, paying attention to the composition of early users, such as beta testers, can improve the reach and effectiveness of innovations and, conversely, biased early testing can reduce innovation impact.

    The role of institutions

    There are also important roles played by the authorities that govern, monitor and support well-functioning entrepreneurial activities. Because these institutions can confer legitimacy to entrepreneurial entities and provide capital that accelerate the creation of businesses, it is important to examine whether different minority groups benefit equally from roles played by these institutions.

    • Institutions can help to boost legitimacy of businesses founded by women. Because women’s contributions in the economy, especially in entrepreneurship, tend to be devalued, they often need to access sources that support their legitimacy. This challenge is particularly acute in settings where the power of formal institutions is weak, such as in developing countries or in any other context that puts a heavy weight on personal relationships and trust. Globally, 78% of all entrepreneurship occurs in the informal economy. In a study of entrepreneurs in Togo, where the majority of entrepreneurs operate in the informal economy, the formal registration of businesses benefited women entrepreneurs more than men entrepreneurs.[16] Similar effects for other kinds of adjudicating institutions were also identified in Zambia.[17] If entrepreneurial performance depends heavily on building relationships, women entrepreneurs may face more hurdles as they are subject to traditional gender beliefs about them. Formal registration and other legitimization mechanisms can compensate for these disadvantages.
    • Institutional resources meant to boost entrepreneurship may unintendedly reinforce racial divides. Government interventions are often intended to drive financial resources into communities which could spur entrepreneurial activity. A study that explored federal recovery programs after natural disasters, showed that capital from recovery assistance programs was only associated with increases in self-employment for whites, but not other racial groups.[18] These effects were attributed to social vulnerabilities tied to racial marginalization and hoarded opportunities tied to white privilege. These results suggest that institutions could reproduce, rather than alleviate, racial inequalities, particularly in the wake of crisis.
    • Institutions can improve entrepreneurial performance by monitoring entrepreneurial financing. Because funding is difficult to access, particularly for women and minority entrepreneurs, brokers and finders can be helpful intermediaries. Indeed, new research shows that women and minority entrepreneurs do access these sorts of resources. However, brokered offerings—because they mainly aggregate funds from retail investors—don’t perform as well because they don’t bring the same advantages of advice and networks that come with VC funding. For example, from a sample of startup offerings in the US from 2010-2019, brokers intermediated 15% of startup offerings, but 20% of these brokers were unregistered by SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). The performance gap between registered and unregistered brokers was wider in fiduciary states (where brokers are subject to higher standards) and when unregistered brokers have a history of misconduct.[19] Thus, while these intermediaries can mitigate the challenges that underrepresented entrepreneurs face in accessing financing, without better regulations, they could actually exacerbate the entrepreneurship divide.

    The path forward and future research agenda

    The emerging research presented at this workshop series opens up exciting new lines of inquiry and suggests a new research agenda for studies of gender, race and entrepreneurship. These possibilities explore both the supply-side questions about who enters entrepreneurship and the demand-side questions about what factors are keeping women and minorities out or inhibiting their success. In our rich discussions in each of the workshop sessions, as well as in the final panel with senior scholars reflecting on the field, we developed a fruitful list of questions and opportunities.

    • Why entrepreneurship? The research shared in this workshop series highlighted that entrepreneurship is not often people’s first choice. Some entrepreneurs or self-employed people have simply been excluded from the paid workforce. Often employment is better for personal outcomes because it could come with benefits, sick leave and a steady source of income. Entrepreneurs are sometimes racial minorities who are excluded from the regular workforce or women who can’t make a corporate job work with her responsibilities at home given the gendered division of labor in unpaid care work. This research cautions us not to glorify entrepreneurship as an outcome but understand its costs and benefits, assessing not only how to get people into entrepreneurship but whether that is even the best outcome.
    • An intersectional gender lens on entrepreneurship. Neither those seeking capital nor those providing capital are representative of society in terms of gender and race. Entrepreneurship is not just an economic activity but also a cultural phenomenon that has historically been fundamentally masculinist and white and where attempts have been made to be more inclusive, they have often glorified a certain type of female entrepreneur that leverages the intersection of white, heteronormative power.[20] Thus, unsurprisingly, the discussions in this workshop made clear that we need to consider gender, race and their intersections in studying and implementing policies to support entrepreneurship. Most research on women in entrepreneurship does not consider race. There is less research on race and entrepreneurship, and what exists often neglects important gender distinctions.
    • Not all entrepreneurship is created equal. These discussions also highlighted the fact that not all entrepreneurship is the same. Research would do well to distinguish between self-employment, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) without growth aspirations, and high-tech, high-growth entrepreneurship. The reasons for entering entrepreneurship and the roadblocks to success in each of these different categories is different. Each plays a valuable role in society. We tend to glorify high-tech entrepreneurship, but SMEs are the source of more employment. For example, more than 90% of all workers in the private sector in Canada are employed in SMEs. Similarly, entrepreneurship may not operate in the same ways in different regions around the world and the role of women may differ in these diverse contexts. Researchers and policy makers would do well to distinguish between the dynamics associated with each without devaluing certain types of entrepreneurial efforts relative to others.
    • Understanding racial and ethnic minority entrepreneurs. Although we are beginning to understand the unique challenges that women entrepreneurs face, we know relatively less about precursors of entrepreneurship for racial and ethnic minorities. We know even less about how gender intersects with race and ethnicity. Empirically, this is related to small numbers of businesses created by racial and ethnic minorities in most study samples. Conceptually, we need to be conscious about using pan ethnic categories that may blur the boundaries of different ethnic groups in it. For example, within the population of people from Latin-American descent, there may be differences in initial conditions that predict the creation of businesses depending on ethnic groups (e.g., Cuban origin versus Mexican origin). The monolithic treatment of Latinx peoples may compress distinct ethnic subgroups, which masks different economic conditions and identities among these groups.[21] The same argument could be made for different groups within Asian entrepreneurs (e.g., Korean-American business-owners versus Japanese-American owners) or Black entrepreneurs who may be African-American or recent immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean or elsewhere. Therefore, to understand different entrepreneurship trajectories by race, we need conceptual toolkits to capture these differences as well as data that allows for comparison across different ethnic groups within the same pan ethnic category.
    • Family members as hidden funders and entrepreneurs. Securing entrepreneurial capital has become easier over time (for example, through the National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996)[22], yet we continue to witness underrepresentation of women and minority entrepreneurs. A possible answer to this question can come from understanding family and workplace conditions of women and minority entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is often a family endeavour, and by primarily examining entrepreneurship as an individual activity, we are missing out important factors related to funding as well as founding decisions. Further, entrepreneurs frequently rely on family for securing startup funding and sustaining business. For example, having a partner with a stable job allows entrepreneurs to persist in their business. This highlights the importance of understanding family conditions especially during the early stages of entrepreneurship. Once the business is created, an entrepreneurs’ spouses may be “shadow entrepreneurs,” playing as significant role as the founder but with less recognition. For example, depending on cultural norms that entrepreneurs are exposed to, a wife’s labor can be perceived as “family labor” readily available to entrepreneur husbands, whereas men’s labor is perceived as their own.[23] Future research should examine the role of these hidden entrepreneurs as a critical part of the entrepreneurial funding landscape and workforce.
    • Industry dynamics shaping entrepreneurial dynamics. There may be systematic variations in the gender gap in entrepreneurship by sector, but we are only beginning to observe these patterns and underlying mechanisms. For example, the gender gap in entrepreneurship in digital industries is greater than other industries. This is surprising given that digitization actually lowers the costs of launching businesses (for example, everyone can access Amazon Web Services for their data infrastructure rather than building it themselves) which should erode funding frictions that would be a source of the gender gap in entrepreneurship.[24] If funding isn’t the barrier, then what other structural characteristics in the high-tech industry would predict the lower likelihood of entrepreneurship for women, compared to other industries? It is also possible that the gender gap in entrepreneurship by industries is related to gendered distribution of workers in certain industries in the first place (male-dominated versus female-dominated sectors).[25] Large-scale field experiments would help us to understand conditions that may facilitate men’s entry into jobs dominated by women and vice versa.
    • Activating networks and referrals. The research shared in this workshop series highlighted the importance of networks for entrepreneurs to achieve success. These networks, properly mobilized, can provide access to funding, advice and other resources. Yet, the studies suggest that it is not enough to expose women and underrepresented minorities to potential networks. We also are unclear if structured interventions to create networks such as accelerator programs actually help in this regard. In addition, disentangling the effect of networking in explaining business outcomes remains challenging, empirically.[26] Connecting networks to outcomes is difficult because it is a two-sided matching problem: you need to understand how and why each matches with the other. Future research would seek to understand the underlying mechanisms that explain the benefits of networking and mentorship and determine what interventions would work to activate useful networks for underrepresented groups.
    • Reducing gatekeeper biases. The role of gatekeepers, such as VCs, are critical in early stages of startups. By studying these gatekeepers over time, we can sort out the sources of bias and appropriate interventions. For example, central to statistical discrimination theory is that when beliefs turn out to be inaccurate, actors can update their beliefs. Will we see gatekeepers update their beliefs on businesses led by women and minorities? What are ways to disentangle statistical discrimination versus taste-base discrimination against women and minority entrepreneurs? To answer these questions, researchers should leverage study designs that track behaviours of gatekeepers over multiple periods.[27] In the short run, it may be necessary to provide women and minority entrepreneurs with other supports that will increase their legitimacy as a compensatory mechanism that may offset biases.[28] For example, in Togo, this was formal business registration. In the Silicon Valley, this might be affiliation with a top VC or endorsements from recognized leaders. Such signals may help women and minority entrepreneurs overcome gatekeepers’ uncertainties around their quality and potential. Research might ask whether social capital can be transferred, as we are seeing African American stars in music, movies and sports entering into entrepreneurship or into entrepreneurial financing.

    In sum, the emerging research on gender and race is shedding new light on the complex dynamics of assuring equal opportunities in the entrepreneurial space. Many of the insights direct our attention away from seeing this as a “supply side” problem in which not enough women and minorities enter entrepreneurship and towards seeing how “demand side” factors such as systemic racism, biased evaluations, and family dynamics disguise limits and impede success. We also see an emerging set of solutions—such as interventions with gatekeepers, creating legitimacy mechanisms and reconfiguring institutional supports—that should lead to greater equity in our economy.

    __________________________

    RESEARCH OVERVIEW PREPARED BY:

    Hyeun Lee and Sarah Kaplan, Institute for Gender and the Economy at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

    The preparation of this research overview was supported by the Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH).

    CITE AS:

    Lee, Hyeun. and Kaplan, S. (2021). “Debates and controversies in understanding gender, race and entrepreneurship,” Institute for Gender and the Economy, https://www.gendereconomy.org/debates-and-controversies-in-understanding-gender-race-and-entrepreneurship/.

    References

    [1] Kanze, D., Huang, L., Conley, M. A., & Higgins, E. T. 2018. We Ask Men to Win and Women Not to Lose: Closing the Gender Gap in Startup Funding. Academy of Management Journal, 61(2): 586–614.

    [2] Ewens, M., & Townsend, R. R. 2020. Are early-stage investors biased against women? Journal of Financial Economics, 135(3): 653-677.

    [3] Hebert, C. 2020. Gender stereotypes and entrepreneur financing.  Working Paper available on SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3318245

    [4] Jennings, J, & Brush, Candida G. Research on Women Entrepreneurs: Challenges to (and from) the Broader Entrepreneurship Literature. Academy of Management Annals, 7(1): 663-715.

    [5] Yang, T., Kacperczyk, A., & Naldi, L. 2020. Career Antecedents of Female Entrepreneurship. Working Paper.

    [6] Thébaud, Sarah. 2015. Business as Plan B: Institutional Foundations of Gender Inequality in Entrepreneurship across 24 Industrialized Countries. Administrative Science Quarterly, 60(4): 671-711.

    [7] Zandberg, J. (Forthcoming). Family Comes First: Reproductive Health and the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship. Journal of Financial Economics.

    [8] Zandberg, J. 2020. Reproductive Rights and Women’s Access to Capital. Working Paper. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3727553.

    [9] Core, Fabrizio. (2020). Maternity Risk and the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship. Working paper available on SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3539508

    [10] Delfino, Alexia. 2020. Breaking Gender Barriers: Bringing Men into the Pick-Collar Jobs of the Future. Working Paper. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T2KKmwIaqTZ9HiuAExq2vItss75R4_7X/view?usp=sharing

    [11] Howell, S. T., & Nanda, R. 2019. Networking Frictions in Venture Capital, and the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship. Working Paper. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3484700.

    [12] Brooks AW, Huang L, Kearney SW, Murray FE. 2014. Investors prefer entrepreneurial ventures pitched by attractive men. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(12): 4427–4431.

    [13] Op cit. Hebert, C. 2020.

    [14] Hu, A., & Ma, S. 2020. Human Interactions and Financial Investment: A Video-Based Approach. Working paper available on SSRN: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3583898.

    [15] Cao, R., Koning, R., & Nanda, R. 2020. Biased Sampling of Early Users and the Direction of Startup Innovation. Working Paper available on SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3736119.

    [16] Dimitriadis, S. 2020. Gender, formal registration, and entrepreneurial performance. Working Paper.

    [17] Ashraf, Nava, Delfino, Alexia, & Glaeser, Edward L. Rule of Law and Female Entrepreneurship, NBER working paper, available at https://www.nber.org/papers/w26366

    [18] Bento, A., & Elliot, J. 2020. The Racially Unequal Impacts of Disasters and Federal Recovery Assistance on Local Self Employment Rates. Working Paper.

    [19] Yimfor, E. 2020. Brokered Startup Financing. Working Paper available on SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3511164.

    [20] Heizmann, H., & Liu, Helena. (forthcoming) “Bloody Wonder Woman!”: Identity performances of elite women entrepreneurs on Instagram. Human Relations.

    [21] Valdez, Z. 2011. Political Participation Among Latinos in the United States: The Effect of Group Identity and Consciousness. Social Science Quarterly, 92(2): 466–482.

    [22] Ewens, M., & Farre-Mensa, J. 2020. The Deregulation of the Private Equity Markets and the Decline in IPOs. The Review of Financial Studies, 33(12): 5463–5509.

    [23] Valdez, Z. 2016. Intersectionality, the household economy, and ethnic entrepreneurship. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 39(9): 1618–1636.

    [24] Yin, P., & Miric, M. 2020. Population-level Evidence of the Gender Gap in Technology Entrepreneurship. Working Paper.

    [25] Op cit. Delfino, A. 2020.

    [26] Chatterji, A., Delecourt, S., Hasan, S., & Koning, R. 2019. When Does Advice Impact Startup Performance? Strategic Management Journal, 40(3): 331–356.

    [27] Rubineau, B., & Kang, Y. 2012. Bias in White: A Longitudinal Natural Experiment Measuring Changes in Discrimination. Management Science, 58(4): 660-677.

    [28] Castilla, E. J., & Rissing, B. A. 2019. Best in Class: The Returns on Application Endorsements in Higher Education. Administrative Science Quarterly, 64(1): 230–270.

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    Research summary prepared by

    Hyeun Lee and Sarah Kaplan

    Published

    January, 2021

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