The Pay Gap Bot That Rocked IWD

International Women's Day can be a drag. Each year, we watch as the corporate world floods social media with supportive statements and images of women, while in the real world, we continue to see systemic disparity for women in the workplace, particularly when we look at the intersection of race and gender. This year, however, we were treated to a glorious Twitter bot - one that retweeted companies' IWD posts along with the median gender pay gap within their organizations. We got to speak with Francesca Lawson, freelance copywriter, social media manager, and co-creator of the Pay Gap Bot. Together we discuss corporate gender parity theater and the data that can help us see the current state of things (as well as what's still missing). Don't miss this fantastic episode!

To learn more about Francesca's work, visit www.francescalawson.com.

Transcript below:

Erica D'Eramo 0:05

Hello and welcome to the Two Piers Podcast. This is season three, episode two and today we have another great guest on the podcast. Her name is Francesca Lawson, and she's joining us from the UK. She's a freelance copywriter, a social media manager and the co-creator of the Pay Gap Bot, which many of us took notice of on International Women's Day this year, and it caused quite the conversation.

So welcome Francesca, thank you so much for taking the time to join us, especially when it's probably a quite busy time for you.

Francesca Lawson 0:50

But that was not a problem and thank you for having me on. You know, I really, really loves to tell you a bit more about about the Pay Gap Bot, how it all came about. I'm really pleased that you found it useful and interesting and on International Women's Day.

Erica D'Eramo 1:10

Yeah, I was telling a mutual acquaintance of ours before I knew she was a mutual acquaintance, that for me, International Women's Day can just be really tough because like my lived experience, and the lived experience of many of my clients is that we have not made as much ground as we would like to in terms of gender equity, particularly in the workplace. So when you see this kind of bow wave of posts from companies talking about how wonderful the women in their entities are and how much progress we've made, it just sort of rings a bit hollow. And so, International Women's Day can kind of be a downer for me because it's just that dichotomy between what I see in reality and then what I'm seeing on these externally facing brands. Your project was one of the highlights for me of International Women's Day where I actually saw it and thought like, yes, this is the real deal. This is shining the light on real data that exists that's being collected. So, tell me a little bit about how did you guys come to come to think of this idea? Put it in action?

Francesca Lawson 2:29

Yeah, so, I felt a lot of the same things that you did around International Women's Day, and especially because, you know, I'm in the sort of marketing and communications space myself. I have been in that unfortunate position of having to press publish on things which I know not to be true. You know, I've sat in meetings where we've been discussing, you know, what we're going to do for International Women's Day? How are we going to show our support for black lives matter? Shall we change our logo to a pride flag for Pride Month? And I've made myself really quite unpopular by trying to challenge that and ask the questions about like, okay, well, why do we want to communicate that? What are we doing behind the scenes that sort of in's us a place in that conversation? And of course, that's not what people want to hear. They want to hear, like, oh, great idea, you know, let's push out some really lovely messages, let's show our support and then, you know, it just covers up any sort of need to do the real work and behind the scenes to improve the lives of marginalized people within their organization, for example. So yeah, my sort of inspiration for wanting to create something like this was to put the data in the spotlight so that people can kind of see, you know, see the truth, understand that behind the sort of smiling photoshoot, and the kind of lunches and the webinars that there's real work still to be done. We want to sort of keep the focus on that real work that's to be done rather than just these kind of performative gestures.

Erica D'Eramo 4:19

Yeah. I almost am of two minds sometimes when it comes to the aspirational element of some of this that, like I do believe that if you can see it, you can be it and showing photos of people who wouldn't normally picture working in those environments can be an inspiration to that next generation and I think that that's important. And also, I'm not so sure that that's really the intention behind so much of this. And I think that a lot of times companies are trying to gain credit that they haven't quite earned yet. So, my own kind of humorous anecdote to that was when I worked on a facility where there were, I don't know, like, a little over 170 of us at a time. I was generally one of one or two women on the boat at any given time, or on the facility. And whenever the regional photographer would come out with like leadership, it was like I had a tail because they would be trailing me just like taking photos all the time. You know, you're not in your like best, you're in coveralls like, you know, it's, you're working offshore. So I finally had to stop and I actually really enjoyed working with a photographer, he was a great guy. But I had to explain to him like, I am not gonna let you take any more photos of me because these photos end up being used in our sustainability report or in internal or external marketing, that portrays that we have all these women working out here, when really, if you took a picture of the whole crew, including me, it would be quite shocking how few women there are. Yeah, I'm consistently hearing about how I got my position because I was a woman, I got my position because our number one priority was to promote women, because we're seeing all these photos, right and it's giving people the feeling that we've made so much more progress than we actually had. So there was actually a lot of backlash that wasn't even earned backlash. I kind of had to put a stop to it, I was like, I'm really sorry, but you can't take my photo anymore. It's like it doesn't align with what my real actual experiences. So when I see these International Women's Day, kind of posts, I just sort of, I always wonder like, what is the rest of the org look like behind this photo? Like behind this one woman? How many women? Did they leave behind the scenes? Like how many people didn't make it to this photo? So yeah, what are your thoughts?

Francesca Lawson 7:11

Absolutely. It's like, you know it's all about sort of, like accountability and honesty and fall for me. I just wonder sort of how the women that I kind of call for these photo shoots feel like, one day a year, the company wants to take notice of them? And what about all the rest and is my concern? I think fortunately, I've not been in that position myself, where I've been sort of like rolled out to for the cameras and for them to kind of promote themselves on the equality angle. I think that fortunately, there's the sufficient other women at my workplaces that they've ended up with that job. But then as well, you've got to wonder about who were the women that aren't in the photograph? Are we kind of just picking off one women of every major ethnicity to make us look like we're really good? And anti racism as well. Yeah, you just think, where are the rest? How do they feel about how their images are being used? Because, I think what it all comes back to for me is you want to use pictures of women for promotional reasons without actually seeing what challenges that they face, what the barriers are to their success in your organization and working towards removing them.

Erica D'Eramo 8:53

Yeah. So for all the people who have faced barriers along the way that then see these gleaming photos of the success stories, it almost sends a message of look, it's possible, like if you just try hard enough, because the message is always look, this woman, she tried really hard and she was really smart and she overcame racism, and she overcame poverty. And she overcame this and that and look at how successful she's been. So if you are just as tough or if you are just as resilient you also could be here too. It puts that little shine on it instead of taking the onus for some of these systemic inequalities back to the source, which is the entities that continuously perpetuate them.

Francesca Lawson 9:49

Yeah, that's a really interesting point. Because it is often that we talk about inspirational women and it's just like, why do we always have to be inspirational? Why can't we just exist and get on with our lives without sort of fear of like harassment either at work or in the street, and, you know, getting paid fairly for the value that we bring. Those things shouldn't be inspirational, they should be just sort of standard.

Erica D'Eramo 10:26

Right?

Francesca Lawson 10:27

Yeah. It's like, from now, when we talk about sort of these inspirational women it's like you say, it's sort of ignores the issues that they've had to kind of fight through, or potentially things that they've had to give up. Like a lot of women still have to make that choice between sort of career and family. And so, like, for financial reasons, and that's not inspirational to me if you know, okay, yeah, we've got a woman CEO, but you know, she's actually been unable to do something that she really wanted, which is sort of have a family. You know, that's not inspirational to me because it's not the full picture.

Erica D'Eramo 11:17

No, and I think that especially, so coming from engineering for me sometimes I just end up taking this very pragmatic view of like, okay, cool, you found that one person that defied the odds and put a spotlight on them, but, statistically speaking, if we look at the statistics, they are not representative of what you would consider equitable or fair if we look across the spectrum. So, we know that to be true, we know what would look representative. So what are the underlying causes, and then just go try to fix those underlying causes? These are symptoms. If you see your diversity and inclusion numbers or just your diversity numbers, not looking the way you would expect and they don't look representative of the population you're pulling from, or operating in, that would be a symptom. That's like, in and of itself, isn't the goal. Diversity in and of itself, like, sure that would represent if you had diversity, that would mean that people were being treated equitably, that you probably didn't have discrimination in your recruitment or in your promotion systems, but it's still just a symptom in and amongst many other symptoms, right? So, that I think gets really obscured when we just use these talking points and we find a single data point or a single human being that we can kind of shine a spotlight on and say like, but look, she did it, so you can too. Okay, cool, but like 99% of the other people who were in those circumstances did not and is that really what we want? Is that really gonna lead to the outcomes we want?

Francesca Lawson 13:03

Yeah, I think it's a really interesting point that you make about representation, because it's like even if you sort of put more like a wider range of people into those roles in your organization, if you sort of achieve representation, both in terms of like, race, gender, disability, etc. It's no use of just having representation, if the systems that created the inequalities are still in place, you know, there's work to be done on sort of like policy level and to sort of make sure that it's actually a place where people can thrive not just you put people in to makeup your diversity numbers and then wonder why they're leaving on mass or they're not advancing in their careers, and because, you know, under certain themes that are within the control of individual organizations that they can do so like they are in control of what they pay, for instance, and, you know, the, one of the kind of...

Erica D'Eramo 14:09

They would lead you to believe that they're not, by the way.

Francesca Lawson 14:12

Yeah.

Erica D'Eramo 14:12

Like, oh, but this is market or this is like what she made coming in, right? So like, we're gonna perpetuate that inequality. Yeah. Sorry.

Francesca Lawson 14:19

It's like one of the things that we've heard since we've had the pay gap bot life is like from airlines, for instance, the people like to make the excuse that pilots are predominantly men and they have the highest wages in the organization. Whereas the more service base roles, the cabin crew, the contact centers, they're predominantly female and they're sort of lower wage jobs. But then my question is, well, I'm not disputing that pilots should be paid generously. But why aren't the cabin crew in the contact center teams also paid generously...

Erica D'Eramo 15:02

Why aren't there more female pilots? Like, why?

Francesca Lawson 15:05

Oh totally, yeah.

Erica D'Eramo 15:06

Like what's happening in the recruitment system? Or what's happening in the development system? Like? I think so often, if we just take a snapshot at a certain period of time we can alleviate ourselves of the guilt about what we inherited, but then not do anything to actually try to change that. Is it right that pilots are generally mostly male? Just like engineers, you hear the same thing from the energy industry, right? Often they'll see the pay gap and explain it away that universities are graduating mostly men in these engineering programs and they tend to make more money than HR or like some of the support staff or the fields that tend to be more highly populated with women. Okay, well, we could probably ask why we're devaluing certain professions, which we know, as soon as those professions become more populated with women, they get devalued, like we've seen this time and again, so it's kind of chicken and egg. But also, what are we doing to make sure that women are accessing opportunities in engineering? Are you going into the universities and doing programs to show that these can be wonderful and successful careers for women? Or are you going into the middle schools and showing young girls that they can have a career in engineering? And why is all your support staff women? Why are there no male admins? Like, I just don't understand some of this. So I agree, you get that initial pushback against the data and it almost feels a motive sometimes when it's like, well, yeah, but okay, and then what? Like, and now what are we saying that we're just happy for this pay gap to persist for eternity? Or are we actually going to go and look at the root causes?

Francesca Lawson 17:11

Yeah, that's it, it's like, it's got to be sort of like a holistic solution, if you will. How can we create the conditions in the workplace where, so that, you know, women can thrive? Likewise, how do we create the circumstances in the education system, which mean this sort of, I guess, the science engineering kind of pathways are more appealing to girls. And then also in the home as well, what sort of influences are going on in the home, which may be reinforced stereotypes? And likewise, when we get to like domestic labor as well, how is that being split? Because, often, if there's sort of a better gender balance, in terms of the tasks in the home, then that kind of gives a better gender balance in sort of work as well.

Erica D'Eramo 18:13

Yep. Yeah, that's one of the reasons that we saw when COVID hit, that we lost like 30 years worth of progress towards equality in the workplace in terms of gender roles, because the responsibilities within the home just became so much more onerous when there wasn't access to childcare outside the home when there wasn't access to school. We did see that still, that is falling to the women even, I think the data showed that even regardless of if the woman in the household, and this is in like a household with a heterosexual, like male, female couple, that even in where the women was making more money, they still would be the one to have to make sacrifices in terms of career during COVID to help out with home responsibilities. So yeah, in that light, I think that there's probably some limitations on what a company can do. But also, I think it doesn't let it doesn't let companies off the hook, right?

Francesca Lawson 19:27

I mean, yeah, definitely no, I think...

Erica D'Eramo 19:29

All of the above.

Francesca Lawson 19:31

Yeah, that's it. It's like it's quite a knotty issue with several different contributing factors and so I think companies need to take responsibility for their part. They can't wait for the other parts that they're not responsible for to fix it for them. They can't wait for or they shouldn't wait for, say like governments to tell them what to do. They should be taking steps to improve the lives of all marginalized people within their organization now, and so that, over time, we are making genuine steps towards parity, rather than just sort of one post a year for like, kind of celebrating and empowering women while actually, life on the ground is much more difficult.

Erica D'Eramo 20:30

Yeah. So the piece around the government involvement is an interesting one, because we, I don't think, would be able to do the same pay gap bot necessarily, if it weren't, you know, like, here in the US, we don't collect the same pay gap data that the UK does. Do you have any other history on that? I was working a UK job at the time that that happened, I just remember a lot of noise around it and companies being like this data is not gonna be representative, this is going to be really onerous. But I'm interested, like, from your perspective, how has that gone? What's the history?

Francesca Lawson 21:11

Soyeah, first year that it launched was 2017 and so this year, we're now on the fifth year of data. The purpose of it was the increased transparency will kind of be the instigator of some change. Unfortunately, I don't think that that's quite works out the case, we do have five years worth of data. While some individual companies have shown an improvement, there's also a fair few that have got worse. I think in the latest data set for the UK, 77% of companies reported that women's average earnings were less than men's. So like five years into this requirement, I would have expected it to be a lot less than three quarters of companies that have a gender pay gap. So yeah, I think that the reporting requirement is a good thing to be able to quantify the problem and be able to kind of get an idea of kind of where it lies. But I don't think that it's done enough to force companies to actually take responsibility for their paths in creating this gap. Their data gets published on the government site, but they don't have to publish any sort of action plan along with that. So they're not held accountable for, say if they said, right, well, we've got a gender pay gap of 15% so therefore, we're going to raise salaries across the board and we're going to introduce better pay parental leave policies. There's no sort of, they don't have to declare that and then follow up next year with oh, yeah, we did this and this was the effect. So I think that the limitation of the data is that it is literally just sort of that one data point, the gap between the median women's earnings and the medium men's earnings. It's a good indicator of sort of where the problems might lie. But then it's not pushing them towards actually fixing them enough.

Erica D'Eramo 23:54

Yeah, that's interesting. I mean, because a median pay gap is again, like a symptom, right?

Francesca Lawson 24:00

Yeah.

Erica D'Eramo 24:01

And the underlying root cause of that pay gap could exist in a variety of places.

Francesca Lawson 24:06

Yeah.

Erica D'Eramo 24:07

And so it's just like a little blinking light that says you need to go look here. Something isn't operating the way it should be.

Francesca Lawson 24:16

Check engine.

Erica D'Eramo 24:17

Yeah, check engine like, oh, well, this could be a big problem or it could be a little problem. Yeah, I often draw a comparison between diversity metrics or demographic metrics and the world of safety because that's kind of where I came up through. And if you see safety numbers going south, if your safety numbers don't look the way you would expect them to or want them to look, it's not like you can just snap your fingers and say like, okay, people stop slamming your hands in doors. Stop having loss of primary containment. Stop doing those things you have to go digging to find out what's happening in the system. But generally, if you see safety numbers that are off the mark, that means that there's a larger, operational issue that's underlying it. You are then wondering, well, what are we losing in terms of efficiency, right? If we're not operating with operational discipline, if we don't have the fundamentals to keep people safe, we don't have the fundamentals to operate efficiently either. I feel like my head goes to the same place when we talk about diversity metrics or pay gap metrics, that this is a blinking indicator to us that something isn't operating the way it should, that perhaps we're not accessing talent as efficiently as we could be, we're not developing talent as efficiently as we could be. We're not gaining the full perspective of some of the brightest minds in the organization and then compensating them fairly. So those are all like fundamental things that influence the performance of a business. As a leader in that organization or as an investor in that organization, I would want to see that, at least understood and then addressed. That's my...

Francesca Lawson 26:16

Yeah, yeah, it's totally, I think there's like an old saying, that springs to mind about like, an, like a happy employee being a productive employee. And so it's like, if you're not sort of nurturing your talent and trying to make their lives at your organization, as sort of valuable and as kind of smooth as possible, then, you lose people, you limit their progression and they check out, that's just what happens. I've been in that situation before, where you just start to get frustrated when you get continually kicked back at work and then you're not productive, you're not happy, you kind of drag down the morale of the entire team. So yeah, I think that it's such an obvious thing that there is a connection between efficiency, productivity, and ultimately, kind of profit and the wellbeing and safety of your employees.

Erica D'Eramo 27:30

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I think that's wherever that underlying issue is, I remember asking, seeing some pay gap data for the organization I was working in that showed that people within the same band, there was not a differential in pay based on gender, or like a substantial differential, based on gender if you looked at it across the seniority band. I thought like, okay, that's cool. But like, I'm not an idiot. How fast does the average man take to get like, how long does it take the average man in this company to get to that seniority abandoned? How long does it take the average woman in this company to look to get to that seniority? Like, let's cut the data a different way, then. Because you still have an overall pay gap. So maybe this is about promotion, right? Maybe this is about like developing your talent and it's not about actually just giving people within the band disparate pay for the same job, but it's about like opportunity. I think it almost becomes a shell game where you can cut the data however you want to support your effort. But if the fundamental goal here is that you want an equitable workplace that's performing towards its mission, who are you serving by playing the shell game? I don't understand.

Francesca Lawson 29:02

Yeah.

Erica D'Eramo 29:02

What's the point?

Francesca Lawson 29:03

You know, it's really interesting that you've brought that up, because, so the UK Data Records the median pay gap and the mean pay gap. We use the bot to display the median pay gap and just to sort of rule out any kind of extremes skewing the data, which it could be like...

Erica D'Eramo 29:27

Like the CEO, right?

Francesca Lawson 29:28

Yeah, it could be just like one well paid female CEO makes the company look like they're doing really well as a whole, when that doesn't paint the right picture for those sort of on the other rungs. So, whenever we got a lot of questions through about like, oh why you use the median rather than the mean. And a surprising number from companies who are like, well, our mean pay gap is only 2%. So, we don't really see it as a problem. They might have a medium gap of maybe like 10, 15%, but they're choosing the lower figure on purpose to make themselves look better. In my mind, it's like, you can't just cut the data the way that you want it to escape scrutiny. A gap is a gap. It's better to just face up to it. Maybe use it as an opportunity to reflect and go like, oh, hey, yeah, we didn't realize it was quite as serious as it is. These are the action points that we're going to look into to fix it. So yeah, it's really disappointing just to see that being the defense that a lot of companies have looked to, and when we've been able to highlight their data.

Erica D'Eramo 30:51

Yeah. It is fascinating, right? I think it's actually quite psychological, where that comes from that, that immediate move to sort of defensiveness or defend the status quo or your role in it or not want to make changes, I suppose. But, I don't really know who that's serving. I mean, clearly serving the patriarchy, I guess. But, it's like using your engine light analogy, right? Like, okay, the engine lights on and the brake light is on. But we're gonna ignore the fault because we fix the engine light and it looks okay now.

Francesca Lawson 31:30

Yeah.

Erica D'Eramo 31:32

It's telling you there's something going on here that means your company isn't running the way you would want it to run. So you can go fix it or you can create excuses but, in the end, I truly believe that the companies that can successfully remove arbitrary limitations, like discrimination and bias, are going to achieve their missions. I say companies, but really just entities, any organization that can remove that, those biases in the system, whether they're cognitive biases or biases in how those systems work, if they can remove those so that they can better accomplish their mission that just seems like a no brainer to me.

Francesca Lawson 32:25

Yeah, absolutely. That's the way to do it and in my opinion, those that aren't doing this work now, I think that they will continue to sort of lose relevance as time goes on. I think it's going to become increasingly important. What I hope that we've shown with the pay gap bot is that once this data is actually in the hands of the public, then it equips them with the tools to hold their employers to account and challenge inequality where they find it. That is something that I think any employer is going to have to be ready for, if they're going to kind of continue to be successful in the coming years.

Erica D'Eramo 33:18

Yeah, yeah, I don't see any real argument towards a lack of transparency. Right? That's a pretty hard stance to take that we don't want transparency, because we don't want people to know what they're getting into as either an investor or an employee, like a potential employee. I think there has been a big shift in the power dynamics between employees and employers, with COVID. Definitely, in the US, are you using the same thing in the UK?

Francesca Lawson 33:54

Oh, it's a bit hard to say, because I'm self employed now. And so, I'm a little bit out of the corporate leaf. But, I went self employed because of the pandemic, because, you know, I realized what I truly valued was kind of flexible working, ability to have lots of time at home and with my partner, the dog, with friends and family, and my previous workplace wasn't really serving that. They were very much we want our employees to be coming back to the office. And...

Erica D'Eramo 34:33

Yeah.

Francesca Lawson 34:34

Because I'd been able to use the pandemic to save the money that we're spending on transport to commute to an office, then that kind of gave me a little bit of a confidence that I can take the leap into self employment. Yes, it's a risk but I survived two years of a pandemic. I'm a lot more risk averse than then so a lot less risk averse than I used to be. So I think that that was a bit of a kind of, it served as a learning curve for me to understand what I wanted and if my existing employer wasn't going to satisfy that, then there were other options. I could have a go at doing it on my own.

Erica D'Eramo 35:24

Yeah, I mean, I guess it was the same for me. So we're like two data points, but the great resignation in the US really, the conversation around it is very much similar to what you just recounted that people are realizing that there is no low risk option. Even people who are somewhat risk averse, I'm actually a quite risk averse person. So when I said, I'm going to go out on my own, people were like, oh, that's such a risky option, why would you do that? I'm like, there is no low risk option. It's all about what you're measuring is in terms of risk, right? Financially, financial stability, I might be in like increasing my risk exposure, but likelihood of living a fulfilled life where I reach my potential, I'm probably decreasing my risk exposure here. So, I think with that a lot of people went through that same realization and it's really shifted what employers need to show to potential employees. Employers are having to compete for talent, they're having to compete with other employers who are in the same space of losing people and needing to scramble and they're having to compete with the opportunity to work for yourself or work for another small entity, or a startup or something that fits your ethos more. This data, this transparency, I think, becomes even more powerful when potential applicants are looking at a company to see what am I getting myself into? Do I want to work for this company and when talent is so highly sought after right now.

Francesca Lawson 37:17

Yeah, totally. A question that I tend to ask when I've been to job interviews before is like, I've looked up and looked at their data on the government side and ask them, this is the data kind of what's your kind of understanding of it and what are you doing to fix it? The what are you doing to fix it answer tells you loads and loads and loads about the company that you're getting into, it tells you about their culture, because if it is met with quite a defensive reaction or like they reel out the, oh, it's because we have more men in leadership positions, and...

Erica D'Eramo 37:59

That one. Okay, why?

Francesca Lawson 38:04

Yeah, then you know, that like, okay, this potentially isn't going to be, this potentially isn't a company where I'm going to be able to realize my potential and I'm going to be supported in my progression. So yeah, I think it's a really important kind of question to ask and totally understand that potentially, there will be people that don't have the luxury of choice of being able to sort of step away from a potential employer and job application because of that, but, at least asking the question in the first place, it shows the employer that it's an important issue and it's something that they need to be prepared for, they need to be aware of, because chances are, it's going to come up again.

Erica D'Eramo 38:53

Yeah. Yeah and for those of us that can ask the question and do have the luxury, I feel like it's even more important that we use that privilege to do it, because if this is a case where a rising tide will lift all boats. Especially when it comes to more competitive wages, a fuller package, fuller benefits package, even if there are pay gap issues, like what are they doing on the other side of things? I mean in the UK you won't have health care as being as large of a part of a package, in the US like that's a really important part. Leave childcare on site, like all of these things that make that up that speak to where the intentions of the company are and how holistic of a picture they're seeing when they look at this. So yeah, thank you so much for lending your insight here. Is there anything that we didn't talk about today that you think is worth highlighting for our listeners?

Francesca Lawson 40:00

I think one thing that I'm just gonna add is that the data that we have on the gender pay gap in the UK is still really quite limited. We currently only cover gender. As we kind of touched on in our conversation today, there are so many other different inequalities that intersect.

Erica D'Eramo 40:22

Yeah.

Francesca Lawson 40:23

Withi society and within work. So, yeah, I think that there's a little bit of a caveat is like we still don't have a true picture of, say, how people of color are affected by pay gaps at UK companies. That's something that I really, really want to be able to fix. I really want the government and the UK to extend to cover things like ethnicity as well. So when we have events like Black History Month and we'll have the same thing, we'll have companies will put some symbols in their logos, they'll maybe put out a couple of posts about like inspirational black people from history and it's all looking backwards. We need to start looking forwards rather than just sort of looking at how far, we've come far. Let's not undo that. We can sort of acknowledge that. But we still got further to go and any sort of awareness event and to do with social issues, it should be a chance to reflect on why we still have issues with inequality and what we're doing to fix it.

Erica D'Eramo 41:40

Yeah. Yeah, it's an excellent reminder, every time we do see pay gap numbers in the US, it's almost always more indicative of what white women experience here. As we start to look at ethnicity and race, it becomes a much starker issue and that inequality and intersectionality becomes really important part of the conversation. So yeah, I think that data is really important. I hope we start to get more transparency in the United States, because I feel like the conversation that it has at least started in the UK has been a valuable one. I would love to see something similar here. So yes, improvements all across the board, that we can continue to work towards and strive for. Thank you so much, not just for coming to talk to us today. But thank you so much for the ingenuity and putting in the effort and the hours that I'm sure it took to get that started and prompting a lot of really good conversations on International Women's Day for me and for a lot of folks I talk to.

Francesca Lawson 42:50

Yes, thank you so much for having me and for all your support of what we've been doing. Still absolutely amazes me that we've enabled some of these conversations to happen. So, yeah, really appreciate the support.

Erica D'Eramo 43:04

Yeah. Awesome. So if folks are interested in engaging with you for freelance work, is there any site that they should look to? Or?

Francesca Lawson 43:16

Yes, so when, for kind of any copywriting or social media projects, and my website is francescalawson.com. I'm on Twitter @franwritescopy and yeah, happy to have any conversations about my work or the bot or anything.

Erica D'Eramo 43:37

Cool, awesome. Well, yeah, hopefully, we can work together in the future as well. This has been great to have you on. For the website, we'll include that in the show notes and the transcript as well. And for the Two Piers consulting, as always, you can find us at twopiersconsulting.com. We are on all the social media platforms. So LinkedIn, I shouldn't say all of them. But we're on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Two Piers Consult and you can find us there or on our website. So, thanks again for joining us for this episode. It was a great one. We really appreciate our guests coming on and sharing your knowledge and we'll see you next episode.

Two Piers Talks International Women's Day

Photo courtesy of Unsplash.

Hello and welcome to the Two Piers Podcast, season one, episode three. I’m your host, Erica D’Eramo. Today we will be discussing International Women’s Day. We’ll touch on the history and purpose behind this celebration, as well as this year’s theme and the underpinning six missions. We’ll also explain how you can personally get involved.

International Women’s Day occurs on March 8th each year. This year it’s on a weekend, which means you’ll probably be hearing about it in various forms throughout this preceding business week whether on LinkedIn or Social Media, or through events at your company or community. 

You may be wondering about the story behind International Women’s Day, and perhaps you think it’s a recent phenomenon. In reality, IWD has a long history that dates back more than a century. Only in recent years have we started to see more recognition in the US, due in large part to our more globally connected society and the impact of corporate events and social media. 

My first experience with International Women’s Day was while I was living in Azerbaijan and working in the Republic of Georgia, both of which were formerly part of the Soviet Union. IWD was an important Soviet holiday and it remained important in the post-soviet era. My experience in the early 2000’s in Baku and Tbilisi was that IWD was predominantly focused on displays of respect and gratitude toward women. I did find this a bit ironic, as the women were often responsible for any cooking or cleaning required for an IWD celebration, at least at the sites where I was working, but it was a fun day with lots of flowers and chocolates and odes to women’s greatness. I also experienced International Women’s Day while I was working in Angola. It was similarly celebrated with flowers and chocolate, and displays of respect toward women. The similarities made sense to me, as Angola has had a historical relationship with the Soviet Union and now modern day Russia. I found IWD to be similar in some ways to Valentine’s Day, but without the romantic element. Instead, it was a display of affection, support, and sisterhood for the women in those societies.

As mentioned previously, International Women’s Day has a long history, dating back more than a century. The early 1900s saw organizing and activism by women fighting for better working conditions and voting rights which laid the groundwork for IWD. In 1908, there was a protest of 15,000 women in NYC. The following year, the Socialist Party of America declared February 28th National Women’s Day. Then, in 1910, at the second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, a woman named Clara Zetkin proposed what we now recognize as International Women’s Day. This proposal was unanimously approved and IWD was born. 1911 saw International Women’s Day honored in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland with more than a million people attending rallies. By 1913, it was being celebrated in Russia. The following year, in 1914, the official date was changed to March 8th, (on the Gregorian calendar) and it has remained as that date even since. 1914 International Women’s Day celebrations saw rallies across Europe, including in the UK, where Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested in London while on her way to speak to a crowd at Tragalgar Square about women’s suffrage. Sylvia was the daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, who features in a great Drunk History episode, by the way.

Another interesting fact is that the Russian revolution was kicked off in 1917 with protests associated with International Women’s Day. Women began protesting on March 8th for bread and peace, and less than a week later, the Czar had abdicated. IWD would maintain a high prominence throughout the Soviet era.

By 1975, the UN had begun recognizing International Women’s Day. The website was created in 2001, and the online presence and corporate sponsorship and involvement has grown over the years with the expansion of social media and ESG focus. 

So what is the purpose of this day? Honestly, the purpose varies depending on the country and context. In some areas, the day is seen as an opportunity to celebrate women and demonstrate respect. In other areas, it’s seen as a day for protest and galvanizing action. The global campaign is directed primarily at raising awareness regarding the issues facing women, and increasing access to resources.

Sometimes I get asked whether International Women’s Day is inherently sexist. Well, we at Two Piers certainly don’t think so. Firstly, we believe the entire world benefits from gender parity and that enabling women to access their potential will reap benefits for all humans. Secondly, we also recognize International Men’s Day on November 19th, which raises awareness about the issues facing men and works to dismantle biases and myths that impact men. Forcing people into boxes is harmful and inefficient for society, regardless of gender. 

Each year, a primary theme is set and this year’s overarching theme is “Each for Equal.” According to the website: “The IWD 2020 campaign theme is drawn from a notion of 'Collective Individualism.' We are all parts of a whole. Our individual actions, conversations, behaviors and mindsets can have an impact on our larger society. Collectively, we can make change happen. Collectively, we can each help to create a gender equal world.”

Along with the theme, there are also six missions that are identified, in which “celebrating women's achievements and increasing visibility, while calling out inequality, is key.” We’ll touch on each of the six missions here. 

The first mission is Women in Tech: To celebrate digital advancement and champion the women forging innovation through technology. The site discusses the need for more women in tech, and has some great videos and articles outlining exciting technologies that are shaping the world for the better. This includes food waste reduction, interface design for better inclusivity, and “Smart Dust” a quantum computing technology to tackle drug diversion and abuse. There’s also a section that explores the implications of gender bias in AI. Frida Polli, CEO of Pymetrics has a thought provoking challenge “Can you imagine if all the toddlers in the world were raised by 20-year-old men? That’s what our A.I. looks like today. It’s being built by a very homogenous group." If we think about the implications across all the sectors utilizing AI, it’s pretty astounding.

The second mission is Women and Sport: To celebrate women athletes and applaud when equality is achieved in pay, sponsorship and visibility. We at Two Piers are big supporters of the US Women’s National Team in soccer (or football as the rest of the world calls it). We recommend Googling the USWNT’s lawsuit for pay equality. There have been some great articles over the past few weeks, including one from SB Nation explaining the current arguments behind the suit, and another from ESPN detailing the support from the US Men’s National Team union.

The third mission is Women at Work: To champion women of all backgrounds who dare to innovate, lead, and uplift others towards a more equal and inclusive workplace. The Global Gender Gap Report for 2020 is available from the World Economic Forum. There are lots of great infographics and a whole bunch of detailed analysis. There’s also a very disappointing extrapolation: at current rates, we are still an astounding 99.5 years away from gender parity. We need to do more.

The fourth mission is Women Entrepreneurs: To support women to earn and learn on their own terms and in their own way. This one hits close to home, as Two Piers is the product of female entrepreneurialism. One article discusses the shift from freelancer mindset to founder mindset: Seth Godin of “The Inner Entrepreneur” defines the difference between being a freelancer and an entrepreneur. He explains that "Freelancers get paid for their work. If you're a freelance copywriter, you get paid when you work. Entrepreneurs use other people's money to build a business bigger than themselves so that they can get paid when they sleep.” Some of the benefits for women as entrepreneurs are economic and creative independence in which women can take control of their own work. Other benefits include finding balance, whether work-life balance or balance between interests, and it allows you to channel your motivations and passion. 

The fifth mission is Women’s Health: To assist women to be in a position of power for making informed decisions about their health. We know from extensive studies that gender bias exists in medicine, whether in the exam room and doctor’s perception of women’s pain, or in research studies that exclude women. One area of medicine that gets explored on the IWD site is heart disease. The British Heart Foundation's briefing, 'Bias and Biology', revealed these four findings:

• women are less likely to recognize symptoms of a heart attack than men

• a woman is 50% more likely than a man to receive the wrong diagnosis

• women are less likely than men to receive life saving treatments

• women are less likely to be given medicine to stop a second heart attack

You can be aware of the following five signs of a heart attack in women:

• chest pain or discomfort that happens suddenly and persists, like pressure, tightness or squeezing

• pain can then spread to the left or right arm or to the neck, jaw, back or stomach 

• sickness, sweating, light-headedness or shortness of breath

• sudden anxiety similar to that of a panic attack

• excessive coughing or wheezing

We encourage you to be on the lookout for these signs.

The sixth and final mission is Women Creatives: To increase the visibility of women creatives and promote their work for commercial projects. The International Women’s Day site includes highlights of female artists and the IWD 2020 Typography Contest. If you’re a female creative, we highly recommend you check it out.

So you might be wondering how you, personally, can engage or get involved. Firstly, check out the website at www.internationalwomensday.com You can learn more about what’s going on this year, and can even find and attend an existing event. If you’re thinking of hosting your own event, the website has all sorts of resources to get you set up and on your way. You can also use the hashtags on social media to both follow and amplify. This year’s are #IWD2020 and #eachforequal.

So that wraps up our coverage for International Women’s Day this year. We’re looking forward to celebrating, and you can watch our social media channels for more information and resources on IWD 2020. In our next podcast, we’ll be sharing some exciting news about Two Piers and our plans for the next year. I’m so excited and want to shout it from the rooftops, but I’m going to save it for later this month. As always, be sure to follow us on social media. We’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, where we share lots of great content and resources. If you’re interested in our coaching, workshop or consulting offerings, you can find out more on our website at www.twopiersconsulting.com, and inquire directly.

Thanks for joining us for this third episode of our podcast, and we’ll meet you back here soon with our new announcement.