Closing the gender gap

Education is one of the key steps necessary to bridge the gender gap in pay and other inequalities that exist between men and women in the workplace.

This was one of the points that was brought home by US Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Linda S. Taglialatela, who was the guest speaker at the Soroptimist International (SI) Barbados 54th Annual General Meeting (AGM) recently at the Accra Beach Hotel and Spa.

She said that this education is needed in order to make persons aware that such inequalities do exist and to garner support for this cause.

“The first is to educate the public on the inequalities women face in the workplace. Broad public education campaigns are fundamental to gaining support for the more specific policies that need to be implemented.

“Women must be at the forefront of this campaign, sharing their accounts of gender prejudice, and offering their personal strategies for overcoming such obstacles.
“It is through a continuous public conversation and the dissemination of information that outdated ideologies eventually die out.”

She also stated that this was something that she herself aimed to do in her first public event as the US Ambassador to Barbados and one of the points that she highlighted was the need for such a discussion to take place in order to tear down these hurdles.

Taglialatela said that last year she welcomed American Women’s Rights Activist, Lilly Ledbetter to this island where she shared her knowledge and experiences in fighting for workplace equality specifically equal pay for equal work, a battle which would eventually lead her to the US Supreme Court and the passing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.

The US Ambassador said that this fight, although a lengthy one, is one that is still being waged today. It also provides valuable lessons for us.
Another step that Taglialatela recommended was greater transparency with the work environment.

“The second step I propose in bridging the gender gap is to call for greater transparency in the workplace. Lilly’s fight against inequality publicly began when she learned through an anonymous source, that she was making thousands of dollars less per year than men in her position. Similarly, thousands of women in the Caribbean do not receive equal pay for equal work. While this in itself is unjust, what is equally unacceptableis that many women do not know that this discrimination even exists due to a lack of transparency in both the private and public sectors. This cannot continue if women are to make greater advancements.”

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