Where are the women? These four women leaders weigh

White women earned 79 cents, while Asian American and Pacific Islander women earned 85 cents. Worse are black women, who earned 63 cents, while Latinos earned 55 cents and Native American women earned 60. According to a report by the National Law Center, which based its estimates on average earnings data for to full-time workers throughout the Census Bureau year.

So what about women? CNN Business asked four women leaders to adopt the state of affairs and their hopes for what awaits us.

On the gender pay gap

Fatima Goss Graves, President and CEO of the National Law Center

Even before the pandemic, the wage gap used to change women by more than $ 10,000 each year. These lost gains now intensify the economic repercussions of the pandemic-induced recession, stealing a financial cushion from women and their families when they need it most. In the coming months and years, as women who lost their jobs look for work, there is a risk of a widening wage gap, as many will feel the pressure to make the first offer, often at a lower level. to the one before, simply because they don’t have the savings to put up with anything better.

Kim Churches, CEO of the American College Women’s Association

We’re not in a good place, and I’m afraid things, at best, are stalled or, at worst, slow down. Women suffered more layoffs and job losses during the pandemic because many people work in retail jobs and services. And many other women have been forced to quit their jobs because of demands for care. When beginning economic recovery plans, we need to address the systemic problems that cause the gender wage gap. Until Covid-19, women were making great strides, but the pandemic has held back all our earned efforts. We need to redouble our efforts to achieve parity and demand change now.

Rachel Thomas, co-founder and CEO of LeanIn.org

They also face huge systemic barriers. They are overrepresented in low-wage jobs that do not offer critical benefits such as low pay. Many struggle with the cost of childcare, which has almost doubled in the last two decades. And they face discriminatory lending practices that hinder the accumulation of wealth. To solve this, real systemic change will be needed. Business leaders must definitively close gender and racial wage differences. And policymakers need to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour, make child care services much more accessible and affordable, and provide paid national family leave to all employees..

Dra. C. Nicole Mason, President and CEO of the Women’s Policy Research Institute

The gender pay gap continues to affect women’s long-term economic security and well-being. Since 1985, the gap has only closed at about 18 percentage points. This is glacial. At this rate, it will take more than 40 years to close the wage gap. For black and Latino women, it will take more than a century. What this means is that my daughter and my daughter’s daughters will not see pay equity during their lifetime. Women earn less than men in almost every profession. This is true for female-dominated professions and for male-dominated professions.

About women in leadership

Churches: Sure, we’ve made some notable gains. Today, America has elected a woman vice president; the most powerful person in Congress is a woman; the number of women running Fortune 500 businesses has reached a record high of 37. But hey, that’s not nearly its own. Women make up about half of the workforce and we are still a long way from holding half of the leadership positions in all sectors. We need a culture change and we need to be proactive in removing the barriers and biases that prevent women from holding key leadership positions in all areas.

Tombs: The additional solutions that families extract from this pandemic will be thanks in large part to the inclusion of women in the rooms where these decisions are made. Women, especially those of color, understand the lived experiences of the people who suffer most. But we must remember that while these leaders are here right now, that may not be the case without a deliberate investment in a generation of leaders behind them. So many women have been fired from their jobs because of the Covid-19 crisis. These women are not just current workers, they are the leaders of tomorrow.

Palette: I am optimistic about women’s leadership. Right now, women are leading in huge ways. From Kamala Harris, the first female vice president, to Sue Nabi, CEO of Coty to Secretary Janet Yellen, women are leaning in at the moment and serving as national experts on critical issues such as the economy, national security and private sector growth. sector. They are demonstrating how to address themselves in an inclusive way and looking to our great common good.

Thomas: Senior leaders are under enormous pressure right now, and women face the same demands as men and then some. This is probably rooted in two dynamics: high-level women are more likely to have responsibilities in child care, and decades of social science research show that we keep women at the forefront with higher standards than men. Leading women are twice as likely as higher-level men to think about changing their careers or leaving the workforce as a result of Covid-19. Women are already under-represented in leadership and we cannot afford to lose the few we have. Compared to men at the same level, women leaders are more likely to advocate for racial and gender diversity, advocate for employee-friendly policies and programs, and guide and sponsor other women.

About women in the workforce

Palette: The pandemic has had an excessive impact on women, forcing more than five million women to leave the workforce. The intersection of motherhood and work has made the economic recession more grueling for women. This is a time of public recount and revelation that would not have been possible without the twin crises of the pandemic and the economic recession. I hope we can use it to push ourselves to re-imagine a society, including our workplaces and homes, that is more conducive to working women and their families.

Tombs: Even before the pandemic, millions of low-paid women across the country were on the brink of a tax cliff: they barely lived on paychecks, empathizing with makeshift daycare and routinely lacking protection such as paid sick leave and health insurance. Once affected by the pandemic, the massive job losses of women in sectors where the vast majority of workers were, such as retail, leisure and hospitality and education, collided with a child care system that collapsed to create a perfect storm that threw women disproportionately. poorly paid black and Latino women: in the crosshairs of the crisis. Women who want to return to the workforce after the Covid-19 crisis will need all the tools at their disposal to prevent long-term damage to their wages and ensure the ability to challenge discrimination when it occurs.

Thomas: In short, Covid-19 is a disaster for working women. Businesses need to double the retention, recruitment and promotion of women, as well as resolve barriers and biases that have long limited women’s advancement, or risk losing years of progress. towards gender equality. It will also be critical that companies create a culture that embraces virtual work and that they create rules and processes to ensure that remote workers receive the same support, access, and opportunities as office workers. Otherwise, remote employees – who are probably disproportionately women – will be ignored and excluded.

Churches: There is no doubt, at all, that women are a vital part of the workforce and that the American economy benefits greatly from their contributions. But a disturbing issue is the maintenance of our gender workforce: men continue to dominate in certain fields and women in others, usually the lowest paid. This is an occupational segregation in a nutshell. There is no reason why more women should not work in the manufacturing industry, in trades, and of course in the STEM fields. In the same way that there is no reason why men should not have jobs as teachers, librarians, nurses. Research has repeatedly shown that a company’s results are enhanced by a diverse workforce. It is in the interest of everyone that we achieve this.