Women still generally work in lower-paying career fields, face sex discrimination and have trouble getting their voices heard, according to panelists from the Heels of Success event held on Nov. 6 in Dahlberg Hall.
The event, titled “Moving Forward and Moving Up,” focused on a pay gap between men and women that is still widening.
Luis Abarca, community relations director in the Office of Corporate Social Responsibility at ING, has been working on ways women can have a stronger presence in the male-dominated working world.
Abarca created the Ladder of Success Tactics, highlighting six specific points for a successful ascension up the chain of command in the workplace.
“Build a personal executive board of directors amongst mentors and colleagues, be thick-skinned, avoid dating other coworkers, socialize with coworkers after work, don’t refrain from showing weakness by displaying confidence and volunteer to help the community,” he said.
According to the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, women tend to work in fields that are notorious for being lower-paying. The top five occupations for women, according to the Bureau, are: secretaries and administrative assistants, registered nurses, elementary and middle school teachers, cashiers, psychiatric and home health aides.
“I think you have to negotiate hard. I negotiated for what I thought was fair. To me, the art of negotiation is knowing your self-worth so you know what you will or will not, or can or cannot accept,” Adrienne Booth Johnson, the founder of Infinity Global Connections, LLC (IGC) and owner of Adrienne’s Fine Resale Boutique, said.
Johnson has held leadership roles at the Coca-Cola Company for 23 years and said that understanding an individual’s self-worth when negotiating for a job is also taking into account their education, transferable skills and past experience.
She stressed for people to not give in while negotiating and that it is okay to ultimately walk away.
“You can sit in there and talk a good game and when they say, ‘Well we think we are going to go to the next person,’ you can’t be like ‘Okay. I will take that!’” Johnson said.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the median full time yearly salary in 2012 was $49,398 for men and $37,791 for women.
