Which Places Are The Least Sexist?
Picture from the Brooklyn Nomad, 2009
There have been a lot of features lately on the most liveable cities. Vancouver BC, Vienna, Melbourne, Toronto, and Helsinki have been at the top of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2010 list.
Sure, we care about if we can get out and hike easily from the city center, and the cost of living, and opportunities for education, but what about how much pay you’ll get as a woman in these cities? Which places show that they care about gender equality?
You know, what has made things abundantly clear for me is that in Norway, England, Canada, Denmark and Sweden they have had female prime ministers. Not so in America.
Perhaps if we really want less sexism and more pay parity, we need to look to those countries.
Norway has at best a 91% pay gap.
In Sweden, the pay gap was 83% in 2001.
According to Wikipedia, customers are just biased to like white men more. They also suggest that what is required to solve the problem of wage inequality isn’t necessarily paying women more but changing customer biases. So how can we change our biases?
Where can you get the most value for your labor in the US?
Check out this interactive map from the NYTimes, ManyEyes and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
It shows that the WORST State for gender pay parity is Louisiana.
The best state? District of Columbia, followed by California.
Could we call this the most and least sexist states?
If you can’t move to Norway or Helsinki or Sydney anytime soon, what can you do to achieve pay parity?
1. Start by talking about your salary. Why would you keep it a secret? The more we talk about what we make, the more we can make our salaries transparent, and the more we can all work towards equality by insisting on equal pay for equal work.
2. Start noticing your biases, uncovering them, and then bringing up how to recognize biases at work.
3. Who do you trust? Why do you trust them? Who do you tend to trust? Who do you tend to distrust? Why is that?
4. What’s one way you build trust with someone? What’s one way you can reach out to someone today at work and get to know them better?
5. Notice who you listen intently to, and who you affirm. Do you listen more intently to men or to women? To people of a certain social status? How can you bring that quality of attention and affirmation to others in your life?
6. Once you start to uncover your biases, you’ll start to see them more easily in others. This can make it easier to bring out into the open, talk about, and change.
Any other tips for uncovering biases? Please leave a comment.
July 26th, 2010 at 4:03 am
I beg your pardon, but the assertion that Canada has not had a female prime minister is incorrect.
Kim Campbell served as the 19th Prime Minister of Canada.
Additionally — albeit considerably less generally referenced — Ellen Fairclough was Acting Prime Minister of Canada for a brief period in 1958.
Lastly, Sheila Copps was Deputy Prime Minister of Canada during the mid 1990s.
July 26th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Dear Nate,
Thank you, I sit corrected. I will change the post.
Sincerely,
Mazarine