Women in the Workplace – How to Promote Gender Equality and Rise Above the Double Standard
By Monica S. Flores
We’re exploring if there’s an additional, hidden “tax” that’s placed on women in order for them to be working and engaging in the world – that comes from additional payments for clothing, haircare, skincare, and health and medical care.
We’re finding that women pay an additional amount for these services, simply for being women – even if it’s the same service like a haircut, or the same product, like a shampoo.
Over the course of a woman’s lifetime, all these costs add up: imagine being charged an additional premium simply based on your gender. For someone born in the 90’s, the “pink tax” is an additional $33k – almost a full year at an entry-level job! For someone born in the 80’s, the “pink tax” is around $47k. For someone born in the 70’s, this “pink tax” is calculated at a whopping $65k. (Calculate the cost of being a woman here: #AxthePinkTax)
Even for women who are recent college graduates, or who are gearing up to enter the workforce for an internship or first professional job, if this tax exists, combined with women’s overall lower wages, women are setting up, from the very beginning, for a lifetime of erosion of their earning power. Imagine consistently reaching the same level as someone else, then being cut down by 10% every year. Over time, as the odds stack up and exhaustion sets in from having to work harder just to stay at the same level, it’s no surprise that we see women dropping out of the workforce or leaving certain industries, such as technology, legal, or finance.
A “double standard” is when one group of people are judged differently on the same type of criteria than another group of people, and for women, there are definite double standards related to appearance, style, and expectations.
For example, men do not have the same expectations as women for their dress: women sometimes must change outfits multiple times in a day for work and personal activities – and in public-facing positions like news media, politics, or acting, we see definite media “counting,” for example, how many times a public figure wears the same outfit. For women, this is easy to find examples for; however, for me, it’s not something important to count.
Similarly, for example, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s recent hair salon visit was called attention to in the media because of the quoted rates from the stylist; her response was to deflect and re-focus on potentially wasteful policies and procedures that her detractors have spent millions of taxpayer dollars on.
Similarly, some expectations about what a woman is capable of doing, might be lowered, simply by the worker being a woman. Job expectations, descriptions, evaluation, and opportunities for promotion, need to be placed into a neutral zone where only the work product or work deliverables are evaluated against some sort of transparent and understandable scale, rather than any personal evaluations based on appearance, gender, or overall style.
Here are some ideas to consider for reducing the impact of the double standard.
- Make an effort not to comment on other people’s appearances
As a matter of breeding and to foster an inclusive presence, never make mention of, or draw attention to, a colleague or co-worker’s dress, style, hair, or makeup. There are many reasons for people to wear (or not wear) certain items. For example, headscarves are considered appropriate attire for some religions. Some people do not wear makeup for social or personal reasons. You’ve certainly seen exciting pink, blue, green, purple, or other hair highlights, or tattoos, or different levels of skirt lengths around your office, campus, or community.
If your workplace can affirm that the quality of the work is what is most important, rather than the clothing of the people doing the work, there will be fewer opportunities for issues or problems related to dress. Consider or investigate if there is a code of conduct that mentions expected attire, i.e. “only closed-toed shoes”, or “while at conventions or representing the company, please wear the branded t-shirt provided). Enforce or advocate for policies within reason (i.e., if someone is wearing slippers because they’ve broken their toe, or they have a skin condition, then this policy would not apply – again, be reasonable).
2. Call for business casual dress at your workplace.
If there is more formal attire or professional dress as a generally accepted practice, consider calling attention to popular options such as Casual Fridays or telecommuting a few times a week, in order to reduce the upward pressure on people to continually purchase different clothing. It’s better for the environment to work from home and reduce/reuse/recycle clothing.
3. State the company’s values in a public or company-wide place such as the handbook.
With a focus on values, there is less “wiggle room” for personal, subjective opinions. If, for example, the stated value is “Be Human” with respect to the human needs that we as individuals have to deal with (time off for unexpected issues with parents, children, dependents, or pets), then naturally, policies like mental health support, parental leave, and flexible work schedules, and more casual (rather than more restrictive) dress code, will come into place.
4. Make an effort to reach gender parity, if your workplace is not reliant on a particular gender. Call this out if it is not yet visible or a priority at your work.
For example, many professional service positions do not require a certain gender in order to perform the work, and so it is to be expected that the workplace will eventually reach an even split. For professional services, the mental or computational tasks don’t depend on the brain engaging with those tasks: so for hiring and promotion, gender is not a necessary item to review.
Note that if the work is highly gendered, such as a medical situation, where clients are required to have same-gender assistants take care of their needs, i.e. personal care, then it would make sense to not achieve a 50/50 balance.
5. Support equality in as many formats as possible.
Showing up for each other means those of us in power, support those of us who are struggling. Set policies to support an inclusive and equitable workplace, and you will have fewer issues with any visible (or invisible) “double standard.”
- Promote, hire, and recruit for gender parity across all levels of the organization. Remove gendered language from job descriptions.
- Allow (and advocate for) personal days for those who need to attend meetings or services.
- If there are employee “affinity groups,” request a budget from management to support those groups.
- If there are rewards or nominations, such as “Employee of the Month,” set up a way to encourage underrepresented people to be present or to be elevated through those processes.
- If there are physical needs that are related to items like meditation/prayer rooms, lactation rooms, or the similar needs, help prioritize and set up these requirements.
We all have different ways to cope with the double standard and the cost of the invisible tax that is placed on women, simply for being women. Moving forward, let’s support one another by reducing the impact of gender on work, school, or professional demands, as well as increase the quality of policies that help people participate in our workforce to as high utilization as possible.
When women are working and engaging with the world, we all benefit. Let’s make a difference in the way we help women, especially younger women who are graduating and entering the workforce.
