Women Belong In Power

This article was published on March 7, 2024 at SonyaDreizler.com. See more of Sonya's writing here.

Tomorrow is International Women’s Day (IWD) so we're about to see a lot of inspirational posts about women and the fight for gender equity. Let us not be satisfied with feel good posts alone; inspirational words are not enough. They must be accompanied by meaningful action.

IWD is about recognizing the systemic inequities that women and girls navigate, and about encouraging everyone to take action towards a more equitable world.

Why is it especially important to be mindful of watered-down equity speak *right now*?

Right now we face both legal and legislative pushback against DEI programs, and many financial services companies have quickly buckled under perceived pressure, unraveling programs meant to level the playing field for groups our field has historically ignored or discriminated against. Most of that current DEI pushback has not been targeted at women specifically, but against people of color.

Let's consider the ways that rollback of equity initiatives for people of color intersects with the fight for women’s equality:

• Half of people of color are women. Rolling back opportunities for people of color = rolling back opportunities for women.
• Much of the legal pushback on DEI efforts has focused vitriol on Black women. 
• And white women- this impacts us too. Of course we should be angry about the targeting of Black women, independently of how it impacts us personally. And, while removal of power may be targeted first at Black women, if we don’t all stand together, powerful groups may seek to take control from all women. Look no further than the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision for proof.

Now, back to the impact-washing messaging.

Where is this coordinated, watered-down messaging coming from? 

Much of what you'll see across social media emanates from internationalwomensday.com, an official looking page heavy on shareable social graphics and light on information about who runs the page, and what their motives are. You can read more here about how "The company behind the site, Aurora Ventures, "works with stakeholders" to come up with business-friendly themes." This same brand that, in 2023, asked us to #EmbraceEquity by posting photos of us hugging ourselves, is encouraging us to post heart hands pics to #InspireInclusion this year.

Below is their wordy but not particularly meaningful description of this year’s theme. And, just for fun, my redacted version.

IWD doesn’t need a theme. It needs work. But if you enjoy themes, you’ll get a more thoughtful perspective from UN Women, where the 2024 message is Invest in women: Accelerate progress. Just comparing the names of the themes you can see the inspiration vs. action dichotomy.

Let's be real. We don’t need inspirational posts. We need action. 

After the long overdue listening to women that came from the 2018 #MeToo movement, the last few years have felt like a slide backwards.

• Less bodily autonomy and less privacy for women following the Dobbs decision, and all of the awful impacts- both intended and unintended of revoking women’s reproductive rights.
• Political representation by women at both regional and national levels in the US hovers around 25%, or about half of proportional representation. And still, almost 250 years from the founding of the United States we have yet to elect a woman president. So please drop the “you can do anything you set your mind to” inspiration.
• A business leadership representation gap so glaring it’s almost embarrassing to talk about. About 10% of Fortune 500 companies have put women in the CEO seat, and only a tiny fraction of that 10% are women of color.
• And a gender pay gap that - despite most large companies having women’s initiatives - hasn’t budged for decades. Specific to finance, here are census data on the median annual earnings in finance and insurance (2022 Inflation-Adjusted Dollars):

Men: $101,653

Women $62,358

Let me preempt the "well actually" replies: I understand that when looking at median income for the whole industry women have lower median incomes in large part because women are underrepresented in the highest paying roles in finance and insurance. This is indeed part of the problem. The pay gap problem is both pay equity by role and who gets mentored, tracked, and hired into those highest paying roles. And one more note - this data set does not cross reference gender with race and ethnicity, but if it did, I imagine we would see that white women earn higher than the median (but not as high as white men) and women of color earn even lower than the median.  

Instead of inspiration, choose action. 

This goes double for men. We need your action, your words, your support- because you are given instant credibility where we are not. And your involvement matters.

Some action suggestions for both men and women. Pick the ones that best match the levels of power to which you have access.

• Ask your company if they’ve done a gender pay gap analysis. If not, encourage them to do so. If so, ask if you can see it, and ask about what corrective action has been put in place if there is indeed a gap.
• If you have authority over compensation, ensure that women - especially women of color - are being compensated appropriately for their value and contributions, and that the way those contributions are measured is the same way that men’s contributions are measured.
• Support - including financially - women running for office.
• Donate to an abortion fund.
• Use your voice to speak up about sexism you see happening.
• Keep using your voice to press for more equitable representation in recruiting, (formal and informal) mentorship opportunities, and whose voices are amplified.
• Listen to women.
• Invest in women.

Let us embrace International Women’s Day as a call to action to measurably improve the lives of women and girls in our communities and around the world.

Value women for a better world.

Women belong in power.

#IWD #InternationalWomensDay