Have a Seat with the C-Suite, Vol. 6

Last week, the C-Suite focused on issues of education and access for women globally. This week, we look at how gender equity emerges in issues of financial access. Have an idea for a future roundup topic? Let us know!

Try: How investors can close corporate America's gender gap—and see serious returns

Hollywood is not the only industry that has been peppered with increasing allegations of sexist and gender discriminatory practices. Wall Street is having its own reckoning with its history of pay discrimination, sexual harassment, and silencing women. One firm hopes to provide both the industry and consumers with a metric for “companies that have strong gender diversity”. The State Street Global Advisors Gender Diversity Index ETF ($SHE) only includes in its index companies in which women are well represented in leadership. It makes good financial sense, according to State Street’s executive vice president Lynn Blake. Companies with plenty of women in leadership tend to have better cultures, more representative governance, and fewer issues of harassment and sexual misconduct. A recent Morgan Stanley report underscores her point: companies with higher gender diversity report higher returns and lower volatility than their primarily male-run counterparts. What can you do? Check your investments – whether individual companies or the index funds that make up your retirement accounts – against the State Street index. If you don’t see your companies represented there, consider moving your money to a company or fund that values gender diversity and equity. Money talks – especially when it comes to the financial sector.

Read: Closing the Global Gender Gap in Access to Financial Services

Globally, most “unbanked” people are women. That is, most people around the world without access to the security and privacy afforded them by the use of a bank account are women. This article states that, “Worldwide, 72 percent of men have an account compared to 65 percent of women”. Moreover, this disparity hasn’t changed since tracking began in 2011 and, in some countries, the disparity is much larger. What’s the big deal about banking? It provides, especially for women, a way to be independent, financially secure, and resilient in crises. In some cases, this means that women can escape domestic abuse or start small businesses. Moreover, if women keep money in bank accounts, they are likely to have fewer children and their children are more likely to attend school consistently. Governments and NGOs (Non-governmental organizations) recognize that banking, especially among rural women, means big gains for the national bottom line, so they offer compelling incentives such as zero-balance banking (banks keep accounts open despite bankers not carrying a balance) and biometric identification systems to maximize account security. While some structural imbalances are still in place (e.g., women have reduced access to mobile phones, upon which much of mobile banking depends), banks and financial service providers worldwide are considering ways to tailor their services to the needs of women.

Share: These 9 States Pay Women Much Less Than Men

Based on 2016 data from the American Community Survey, there are nine states in which the median income of women averages more than $15,000 less than the median income of men. Where does your state land? In two of those states, women make only 60 cents for every dollar earned by men (Wyoming and Utah). One common narrative is that women continue to occupy lower-earning positions than men. However, the reality is that, despite some variation from state to state, women tend to be paid less than men in all sectors, in all states. Amidst what can seem like an insurmountable set of obstacles to equal pay, how can individuals advocate for equal pay for all genders? Consider taking and sharing the following steps:

• Share your salary. In industries and organizations where salary information is public, all employees are likely to be better paid, organizations retain employees for a longer period of time, and company productivity increases. When people don’t have to worry about who makes what, they spend that energy being very good at their jobs.
• Advocate for higher state and federal minimum wage. Minimum-wage earners are disproportionately female so making sure they receive a living wage is paramount to wage equity nationwide.
• Insist on paid family leave and accessible, affordable childcare. Women are more likely to take time away from their professions in order to do the free work of childcare in the home. The resultant cost to them in wages and promotions is huge. Access to consistent, reasonably-priced childcare means that women are twice as likely to stay in their jobs and their pay is likely to increase.

Lead: Summit to Focus on Creating Pathways for Educational and Economic Mobility

American women are more likely to be poor than American men and older women and single mothers are the most likely subset of women to experience poverty. There are many reasons that this is the case, and some of them can be addressed by more equity in education and by ensuring that women have equal access to high-paying jobs. One community college collective is coming together to address issues of poverty, education, and equity. This month, the Wayne County Community College District (WCCCD) in Detroit hosted a summit to bring together ideas and practices from community college faculty, high school teachers, community and nonprofit organizations, and national agencies. The issue at hand: concentrated poverty, relative to education. WCCCD chancellor Dr. Curtis L. Ivery has, throughout his career, established links among K-12 education and a number of adult outcomes spanning health, career, and financial access. Dr. Ivery believes that no single sector is the solution to sustained, concentrated poverty in urban areas like Detroit but instead that organizations have to come together to creatively tackle this multifaceted problem. We have a lot to learn from cooperatives like the WCCCD and we’ll be eagerly tracking the white paper that emerges from this summit.

- Lauren