Gender wage gap in project management

I agree Therese, it’s a lot about company culture. Some companies are very aware of this and have programs to close the gender gap. They do internal reporting on salaries per profession. But such companies are minority. Good overview on % is provide by annual McKinsey report called Women Matter. They provide such studies 10 years now.

Indeed Kiron, wage gap is existing across professions and industries. But I was wondering if you have any opinion why it is present in PM. PM is quite structured job. As you see the main driver for the salary is experience, education and project complexity. Gender should play minimal role.

Rami, nice try:) no, I don’t think it’s a statistical error. I involved myself into gender diversity and women in workplace topics few years ago. There is research on the topic.

Sante,

I agree with you... let's keep it apples to apples.

If this type of discrimination is exposed let's be united in our efforts to end it, but I have never witnessed it first-hand and don't expect that I ever will. I would be fully supportive of anyone currently experiencing this today, as it is possible.

Unfortunately, such gender wage gaps are rarely the outcome of any careful assessment of the nature of the role and rather just reflect a rather large blind spot on the part of HR and other support functions.

I'm always in favor of having defined compensation bands with a midpoint target which most candidates will receive with those more junior coming in below and those more senior coming in above.

Another way to avoid this is to have the compensation decision made by an impartial HR compensation analyst who is not made aware of the gender or any other potential sources of bias.

Kiron

Haha no no I wasnn’t trying to say there is a statistical error but just trying to say it is not a big gap - Do you think 10% is a big gap ? :-)

Yes I think it’s a big gap, it varies from 20 to 10% across countries

Hello Rami! There would be no gap at all! I think that gender aspects show that we have to improve as a society, these are very “antique” considerations regarding women.
Personally I think that many women give priority to raising their children and choose being not so active at work and in that case, they do not deserve the same wage that people (being women or men) that work more intensively, but not because of gender.

I think over the coming years you will find the gap closing and don’t be surprised if you see it reversed in favor of the female Gender. Do you see that coming ?

I don’t think it will happen any soon because it’s not only about the salary, it’s about the whole complex workforce environment. There is so much bias present which is influencing how men and women are perceived. It’s also linked to a cultural aspects. All of this is not going to change any soon. It requires a lot of work and awareness of companies who need to want to change it. And I know there is already a lot of effort put in place but it’s a long run.

I think the same as well... It is matter of time and the equation will be reversed.

It would not be good neither! You do not deserve better conditions because of gender but because of your strengths, knowledge and performance.