A Woman's Worth

Statistics are great, but they never tell the whole story. According to Senior World Online – women in the technology field almost always receive less pay than men doing the same job. There are several other websites I could refer you to, but I’ll save you the time and say what most of us already knew – in many cases, women earn lower wages than men while doing the same job.

To be fair, I have never really given this much thought. Those who know me would tell you that I am far from a feminist and as long as I am being paid what I believe I am worth – I don’t have a problem with what others make. At the same time – it’s worth noting that I have never found myself in a situation where I worked with men who were doing the same job as I and making more money. I would undoubtedly have a problem with it if it were in my face.

Overall, though, I am the last person to be lobbying for women’s rights, as I am extremely old fashioned by nature. For instance, I have a “lawn guy”. I don’t like mowing the lawn or working on my flower beds. If I liked it, I would do it. I don’t – so I don’t. I have no problem breaking a sweat and working hard on things I enjoy, but in my world – mowing the lawn is a man’s job. Ditto pumping the gasoline into my car. I live in one of the few areas left that has a couple of full-service stations still in operation. My philosophy is that if I wanted to smell like gasoline – I would get a job at one of those places. I don’t like it – so I don’t do it – which, in my book, makes it a man’s job. Now, you can yell at me all you want, but I challenge any one of you to find something I’ve written on this site that would indicate I am a hard-core feminist and wanted to be treated equally.

Equality takes on a lot of meanings. Am I as smart as any man I know? Absolutely. Are my thoughts and opinions as valid as any man I know? Of course! But, put me in a ditch with a guy and ask me to dig….and I’ll find a way to delegate the work to him within 5 minutes…maybe sooner. In the physical respect – I AM most definitely the weaker sex. Created by a God in heaven who designed me to be that way. If there is a man in the room and a heavy box/bag/package to be carried, I absolutely expect a man to do that for me. Not because I can’t do it for myself, but because that is the natural order of things in my world. There are things a woman takes care of – and there are things a man takes care of. It’s also worth noting that I’ve pissed off many-a feminist by holding these opinions. Too bad.

So, what’s my rant? Here you go….

I am currently interviewing candidates for a position within my organization. The job is a managerial position and requires a certain degree of experience and expertise to qualify – in other words – it would be highly unlikely that I could find someone on the street who could be trained to do this job without first having acquired a number of years of experience in the field.

I’ve received a number of resumes, many of which show great potential. So far I’ve narrowed the field down to about 6 who seem to have the qualifications I am looking for. Three men and three women have made it into the final selection process (so far). Can someone tell me why, then, have the women who seemingly have the same amount of experience and expertise in their field, asked for considerably less salary than the men? I’m not talking hundreds or thousands – I am talking about the women listing salary requirements that add up to tens of thousands less than that of the men.

How is it that in this world where we are up to our eyeballs in the technology we need to learn anything – the women don’t have a clue what the going rate is for someone with their expertise? A monkey could use the websites available that give you a free salary study to show you what you should be making according to your experience and education. And this isn’t the first time this has happened – just the first time I’ve really given enough thought to the process to deduct that there may be more to the equal pay thing than discrimination.

The bottom line is – if you don’t know what you’re worth, you’ll never get it. My grandmother used to say, “ask not – have not”.

So, to all those who argue all the time about equality in the corporate world – I have some advice. Educate the women you are fighting for. You are what you believe you are. You are worth what you believe you are worth. If you ask for $20-$40,000 less than the guy next to you – you’re probably going to get the job. But when the guy next to you gets to do the same job and gets more money for it, don’t assume it’s because someone is discriminating.

Ask not – have not.