If We Do the Math Girls, We'll Close the Wage Gap all by Our Little Selves
You negotiate your own value every day in some form--anything from the projects you say yes to, to a sit down with your boss about a raise, to who will do the dishes.
But are you valuing yourself enough? No.
Take a look at this study, conducted by Major, McFarlin and Gagnon, as reported in Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide.
- Both men and women were asked to count dots on cardboard squares for $4.
- They were asked to keep working until they felt they had earned their $4.
- They found that women worked 22% longer and counted 32% more dots than their male counterparts before they believed they were entitled to the $4.
- Both women and men felt equally satisfied with their pay and performance.
Consider this: the wage gap between men and women is stuck at 77 cents on the dollar. This study demonstrates that if we simply valued our time and the fruits of our labor more highly and negotiated fair compensation for it, we would close the wage gap without needing to seek outside help, or convincing others that the disparity is (partially) based on gender bias, or trading power for sympathy.
Listen girls, nobody’s going to give it to us, we’re going to take it. It’s our responsibility. We don’t need help in the form of new legislation that often makes for divisiveness. We can shore up the difference by ourselves.