Corrine Stokoe
It's not weird at all to have 21% of your outfit missing right? Or what if you paid for the exact same sandwich as the person next to you in line, except they gave you 21% less sandwich than they gave him – it's cool right? Or what about if you went to get your hair colored and your stylist did all but 21% of your hair. Totally fine right? WRONG. You think this isn't happening to you? Chances are, if you're reading this, it's hitting closer to home than you think.
Most of my readers are women, so when Gap Inc came to me and asked if I'd partner with them to bring awareness to inequality in women's pay in the workplace, I didn't even have to think twice before I said yes.
Did you know on average, women are paid 21% less than men who do the same work? What if 21% of your paycheck was missing every month, or every year? That's the reality for most women in the U.S.
Gap Inc decided to take action in their own company in 2014 by announcing equal pay for men and women internally who do the same work. So not only do we love Gap Inc and all of its subsidiaries (Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta) because of their affordable, wearable, super cute clothing, we love them because they treat men and women equally.
They're also running a campaign right now called You're Missing Something that you can participate in by rolling up a sleeve, taking a photo and posting it to social media with the hashtag #ClosethePayGap to stand for equal pay. Gap Inc will be reposting the best ones on their website.
As a mother of two girls, I hope that we see a huge change in this over time. And I hope it's sooner than later. I don't want my girls working someday for less than a man who does the same thing they do in the same company, for 21% less pay.
I don't know how to fix this today. All I know is that keeping quiet about this issue and pretending it's not a problem only perpetuates this problem of unequal pay.
plain white tee
gray cardigan (sold out sorry!!) similar, similar, similar
boyfriend jeans
white flip flops
ani's straw hat
ani's pink tee
ani's denim shorts
ani's jellies
lyla's romper
photos by Arielle Levy
Special thanks to Gap Inc. and Shopstyle for partnering with me and sponsoring this post.
The lack of research on behalf of Gap is asstounding. When looking at the statistics more analytically, the wage gap between men and women is almost non existent. Here’s just a quick quote from Time, which barely scratches the surface: No matter how many times this wage gap claim is decisively refuted by economists, it always comes back. The bottom line: the 23-cent gender pay gap is simply the difference between the average earnings of all men and women working full-time. It does not account for differences in occupations, positions, education, job tenure or hours worked per week. When such relevant factors are considered, the wage gap narrows to the point of vanishing.
While I appreciate your respectfulness in posting about your difference of opinion on this topic, I still strongly disagree. There are so many REAL examples of women who are paid less than men who do the same job, with the same hours, and the same expectations.
Thank you for writing about this. I actually can’t believe that people try to argue that there isn’t a pay gap – there ABSOLUTELY IS, and it’s actually even more exaggerated for women of color – especially black women, Latinas, and Native American women, who all consistently earn less than their white peers. There is a lot of prejudice in the work force and I hope that when your girls are older, that we get closer to closing the gap.
(Also, for anyone who wants to argue that this takes maternity leave into account – that is also part of the built in prejudice. Not only are women less likely to get hired at child-bearing age, they’re less likely to maintain their salary and progression of their career after returning to the work force. This is further exaggerated by minimal paid leave and lack of paternity leave options in most of the US!)
You bring up such a valid point, it is even worse for women of color. I really hope too that things change with time. Thank you for your thoughts!
Corrine, I really like you and enjoy following you on insta. So I hope you read this in the kind spirit it is intended. I’ve actually done research on this topic – because as a woman it’s important to know exactly where I stand. I’ve worked in heavily male skewed industries and still kept pace (or outpaced) their rise in position and pay consistently. So am I a unicorn? Turns out, no. A blanket pay gap statement really doesn’t get into the nuances. I’m in no way suggesting pay gap never occurs. That’s absurd. The pendulum of life swings to extremes of good and bad. But for the most part, this is how it breaks down: http://www.dailywire.com/news/4858/7-facts-you-need-know-debunk-equalpayday-lie-ben-shapiro