The Struggle for Gender Equality: Lower-Wage Women Workers at the Forefront
The Struggle for Gender Equality: Lower-Wage Women Workers at the Forefront
The theme of this year’s Diversity Woman conference, “100 Years Is Too Long For Gender Equality,” resonates with the impatience many of us feel about the slow progress toward achieving gender equality in the workplace. This frustration is particularly acute for women of color, who often experience a “double outsider” status.
What’s Holding Up Progress for Women?
Unconscious bias has long been recognized as a significant challenge for women, both inside and outside the workplace. Many companies have attempted to address this through unconscious bias training for leaders and managers. However, a more pressing issue today is the resurgence of overt, explicit bias. This includes misogynistic treatment such as sexual harassment, assault, and attempts to limit women’s reproductive rights. Lower-wage women workers often bear the brunt of this explicit bias.
The #MeToo Movement and Lower-Wage Workers
While the #MeToo movement has brought sexual harassment issues to the forefront, lower-wage women workers are often overlooked in the national discourse. Fortunately, initiatives like the Our Time campaign, sponsored by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, offer a ray of hope. This campaign focuses on protecting lower-wage workers, including Latina farmworkers, janitors, and factory workers, from sexual harassment and abuse.
Reproductive Rights and Lower-Wage Workers
Lower-wage women workers are also disproportionately affected by changes in national policy norms regarding reproductive rights. Recent policy shifts allow employers to deny women insurance coverage for contraception based on religious objections. This is often justified by the false argument that access to birth control encourages risky sexual behavior, ignoring studies that disprove this claim. The use of such subjective criteria to limit women’s reproductive rights is disturbing and indicative of growing misogyny in society.
The Role of Business Leaders
Societal norms shape the workplace environment, and it will take a concerted effort to overcome the misogyny that seems to be ingrained in today’s society. Business leaders must speak out against the erosion of women’s rights and ensure their commitment to advancing women within their organizations remains strong. Only then can we hope to achieve gender equality in the workplace.
About Catalyst
Catalyst is a global nonprofit that works with some of the world’s most powerful CEOs and leading companies to build workplaces that work for women. Founded in 1962, Catalyst drives change through pioneering research, practical tools, and proven solutions to accelerate and advance women into leadership—because progress for women is progress for everyone.
